Lina calls for stiffer penalties vs jueteng

He has set a deadline for himself to stop jueteng.

But Interior Secretary Joey Lina is dead sure he can never completely stop the illegal numbers game if penalties for violators remain light.

Lina recently wrote the two chambers of Congress, seeking support for the passage of measures that increase the penalties for jueteng operators and amend the antiquated PD 1602 or the Anti-Gambling Law.

"Our campaign against jueteng will never succeed because of the light penalties imposed on violators," he said. He noted that jueteng collectors are only made to pay fines of between P400 to P2,000, which are "peanuts" to so-called jueteng lords considering that jueteng is a P20-billion-a-year industry in this country.

"We need to change the law. Stiffer penalties will allow us to fight this battle more aggressively," Lina stressed.

The former Laguna governor has taken the battle against jueteng as his own personal fight right after he quit the camp of deposed President Joseph Estrada more than two years ago.

He said the protection money from jueteng, especially in the provinces, is often the start of corruption among government officials.

"If we can stop jueteng, then we have a headway for stopping other forms of corruption," he said.

Lina pointed out that five measures are now pending before Congress – two in the Senate and three in the House – which seek to increase the penalties for jueteng and other illegal numbers games.

According to him, Senators Robert Barbers and Noli de Castro have introduced Senate Bill Nos. 2083 and 2093, respectively, which complement House Bill Nos. 1375, 1581 and 5163 introduced respectively by Reps. Prospero Pichay, Gilbert Remulla and Ruffy Biazon.

All of the pending measures seek to raise the monetary penalties for operators of jueteng, masiao, "last-two" and other forms of illegal gambling. De Castro’s bill, for instance, recommends fines ranging from P200,000 to P1 million to collectors and other "small-time" offenders while fines of P1 million to P3 million are prescribed for the so-called "big fish."

Under the same bill, government officials found to be involved in any form of illegal gambling shall suffer imprisonment, complete disqualification from public office and fines ranging from P3 million to P5 million.

"Other officials who will be found guilty of doing nothing to curb jueteng in their areas of jurisdiction shall also be punished," Lina said.

Lina is working double-time to beat his May 6, 2003 self-imposed deadline. In March, he led an anti-gambling summit and ordered the Philippine National Police as well as his department’s special group Jericho to launch anti-gambling operations.

Since then, 27,000 jueteng personnel have been arrested, with 10,000 of them charged in court.

"We cannot keep all these people behind bars for long if we don’t impose stiffer penalties. They will just pay their way out of jail," he said.