100 days after: No big fish yet in jueteng drive

The big fish are getting away.

It’s been 100 days since Interior Secretary Jose Lina Jr. launched his anti-jueteng campaign, but not a single big-time gambling lord has been put behind bars.

While Lina is busy soliciting support for his anti-jueteng drive, reports show that the illegal numbers game continues to flourish in Metro Manila and in the provinces, under the very noses of the police and Task Force Jericho, Lina’s anti-illegal gambling task force.

Lina’s accomplishments insofar as the anti-illegal gambling drive is concerned included the relief of seven ranking police officers and the arrest of hundreds of cabos and kobradors or bet collectors – the small fry of the illegal gambling racket.

Added to that, five members of Task Force Jericho were arrested in Manila while allegedly extorting P10,000 from a fellow policeman in exchange for the release of two employees of a racehorse bookie joint the task force raided.

All told, Lina’s campaign to stop illegal gambling has gone on a downtrend despite his repeated threats to relieve and file administrative charges against police and local government officials who allow jueteng and other forms of illegal gambling to thrive in their areas of responsibility.

Information gathered by The STAR indicate that a majority of the directors of the Philippine National police (PNP) regional commands are ignoring Lina’s campaign to curb jueteng because they are busy soliciting support from politicians in order to land juicy posts in the coming PNP revamp – a revamp spawned by the vacuum created in the PNP hierarchy when Lina relieved seven ranking PNP officials for failing to curb jueteng.

A police general who refused to be identified told The STAR that some gambling lords have even expanded their operations: a certain Tepang and Tony Francisco in Caloocan; Caloocan City-based gambling lord Gani Cupcupin has expanded his operations to Cavite; Melchor Caluag in Pampanga and its neighboring provinces; Jesse Viceo in Bulacan; Boy Guan in Sorsogon; Alex Tang in Camarines Norte; Bong Villafuerte in Camarines Sur; Tom Ranola and Totoy Casag in Albay and Charing Magbuhos in San Pablo City.

The police official added that Lina should not blame entirely the PNP. He accused Task Force Jericho of being on the take and cited police intelligence reports that Guan is shelling out P300,000 monthly in protection money to task force members, while the task force gets P700,000 monthly from Tang, P600,000 a month from Villafuerte and P500,000 monthly each from Casag and Ranola.

The source said the Bicol-based gambling lords hand over their monthly payola to policemen surnamed Apacible, Mojares, Cayabyab and Sabare, who identified themselves as Task Force Jericho agents.

He added that the other gambling lords hand out their monthly payola to Task Force Jericho agents, but the intelligence reports did not reveal the exact amounts involved.

To camouflage their extortion racket, the source said, Task Force Jericho "stage manages" its raids on jueteng joints that contribute to their illicit payroll. The STAR tried, but failed, to reach Task Force Jericho chief Superintendent Noel Estanislao for comment.

While Lina was quick to relieve seven top PNP officials, he was accused of coddling erring Task Force Jericho members. The seven relieved PNP officials will be given only functional positions in the coming PNP revamp, according to PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr.

"The arrest of the five (Task Force) Jericho members is only an eye-opener," the source said, as he urged Lina to conduct a discreet investigation into the shenanigans of Task Force Jericho members so he will have first-hand knowledge of their "tong" collection activities.

"It’s not too late as yet for Lina to clean his surroundings before the eyes of the public. (They) are banking on him to close down jueteng operations in the country in a year, as he promised," the source said.