Palace: Lina to stay at DILG

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina Jr. will remain in his post even if he fails to stamp out jueteng nationwide by tomorrow, Malacañang said yesterday.

"The President has not given any indication that the secretary will be removed," President Arroyo’s spokesman Ignacio Bunye said. "In fact, during the last barangay meeting, the President categorically stated that Secretary Lina will be staying on."

After assuming office following the ouster of President Joseph Estrada on Jan. 20, 2001, Lina promised to eradicate jueteng in a year’s time.

As the deadline drew nearer, Lina modified his position and called on Congress to "give more teeth" to anti-gambling laws to keep in jail gambling bosses, who could "easily" post bail.

Lina will report to the nation tomorrow whether his one-year campaign against jueteng and other illegal gambling operations had been a success.

But Camp Crame sources said jueteng continues to exist in the country and operations are in "full blast," especially in Ilocos Sur, the bailiwick of former governor Luis "Chavit" Singson, and in Ilocos Norte, in the Cordillera Administrative Region and in the Bicol Region.

In Metro Manila and neighboring provinces, jueteng operates "guerrilla-style," said Chief Superintendent Manuel Cabigon, head of Lina’s anti-gambling task force.

However, Cabigon said his men have arrested 31 people in six raids on jueteng dens in Muntinlupa City, Bulacan and Quezon City over the weekend.

Seized from the suspects were jueteng paraphernalia and close to P15,000 in cash.

"We are intensifying our intelligence gathering operations," Cabigon told The STAR. "With my men now dispersed properly, we expect to be operating full blast this month."

On April 4 last year, Lina launched his anti-jueteng campaign during an anti-gambling summit at the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters in Camp Crame.

Early last month, Lina named Cabigon chief of a new anti-gambling task force after disbanding the 104-man Task Force Jericho.

Superintendent Noel Estanislao, the commander of Jericho, was allegedly receiving "weekly tong" (bribe) money from gambling bosses.

Cabigon’s men raided the jueteng joint of a certain Lito Somera in Sitio Bagong Silang, Barangay Malhacan, in Meycauayan, Bulacan.

They arrested Ruel Cruz, 39; Demetrio Rollo, 63; Medelyn Cacao, 28, and Ariel Oracion.

Police seized from them P684 in cash, two calculators, five numerical markers, four ballpens, a "bolilyo" and a stamp pad.

In Quezon City, Cabigon’s men arrested Edgardo Baquiran, 43, a bet collector, and seized from him P2,346 in cash and jueteng paraphernalia.

Cabigon refused to talk about tomorrow’s deadline which Lina gave himself to stop jueteng operations nationwide.

"I have nothing to do with that deadline," he said. "The said date is pressuring operatives to come up with positive results."

Cabigon said his "past activities were only part of the probing operations" to know how the gambling bosses would react each time his men made arrests.

"We are presently fully aware of the gambling lords operations," he said. "We are now in the process of intensifying our efforts to raid their gambling dens."

Cabigon said former members of Jericho who had been in contact with gambling bosses have been transferred to Camp Crame. He denied that he had retained some of them. – Delon Porcalla, Non Alquitran