WHAT WENT BEFORE: Jueteng and ‘Three Kings’

Then First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, then Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno and whoever was the Philippine National Police chief were known as the “Three Kings” of the Arroyo administration who allegedly received regular protection money from operators of the illegal numbers game jueteng in Pangasinan province.

This was according to then Mayor Rodrigo Orduña of Bugallon town, Pangasinan, who turned whistle-blower in December 2012.

Orduña also disclosed the alleged involvement of his erstwhile boss and political ally, former Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino Jr., in the proliferation of jueteng in the province.

But Orduña admitted that he never saw Arroyo, Puno and any of the PNP chiefs during the Arroyo administration receiving the protection money amounting to millions of pesos.

He “assumed” that the trio were getting their share from the illicit numbers racket because the police did not raid his group’s jueteng dens.

Espino denied any links to jueteng, adding that the charges against him were “politically motivated.”

In June 2005, jueteng “bagwoman” Sandra Cam went public and accused Mike Arroyo’s son, then Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, and brother, the late Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo, of receiving jueteng money.

Cam testified in the Senate that she herself personally handed P500,000 in protection money to Mikey as his share from jueteng operations in the Bicol region.

She said she was ordered by Chief Supt. Restituto Mosqueda, then the police chief in the region, to deliver the money to Mikey and his uncle.

—INQUIRER RESEARCH

Source: Inquirer Archives