Jueteng-free crusade launched

A jueteng-free Philippines?

A coalition of various civic and cause-oriented groups, called the Jueteng-Free Philippines Movement, was launched yesterday to launch a crusade against illegal gambling and, particularly, to help in the government’s latest campaign against jueteng.

Their group’s mission, according to organizer Agnes Devanadera, is to set up a network of tipsters that could lead to the arrest of jueteng operators.

Devanadera, a lawyer and a former mayor, said they "fully support" the Arroyo administration’s renewed crackdown against jueteng, which cost seven top police chiefs their jobs last week.

Under President Arroyo’s newly adopted policy of "command responsibility," the seven were sacked by the National Police Commission (Napolcom) for their reported failure to curb jueteng in their respective jurisdictions.

The seven police officials denied being remiss in their job and said they were not given due process.

Under a recently issued Napolcom policy, a police official may be relieved if the Department of Interior and Local Government finds that illegal gambling continues to thrive in his locality.

A former president of the League of the Municipalities of the Philippines, Devanadera said "as a former mayor I know how the system works and how to address the problem at the local level."

Former Agusan del Norte congressman Roan Libarios said, however, the government crackdown must spare no one, including politicians and public officials found receiving kickbacks from illegal gambling rackets.

"If President Arroyo fails to stop jueteng, then she loses moral ground to govern and she would suffer the same fate of former President Estrada," said Libarios, a former prosecutor in Estrada’s impeachment trial.

Libarios said the Jueteng-Free Philippines Movement will work closely with Napolcom and closely watch the police as well.

Jueteng led to the downfall of former president Joseph Estrada who was topped in a military-backed popular protest in January 2001 due largely to allegations that he was receiving bribes from illegal gambling operators.

The sacking of the seven had stunned the public since some of them had played key roles in the uprising that toppled Estrada and installed then Vice President Arroyo in his place.

The country has suffered from an image of being unsafe to tourists and investors due to a rash of kidnapping-for-ransom cases and drug-related crimes. Less than two million tourists visit the country each year.

In many instances, the police are perceived as being protectors of crime gangs.