Mikey threatens more libel suits vs Cam

Embattled presidential son and Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo threatened yesterday to file additional libel charges against Senate jueteng witness Sandra Cam.

His lawyer, Grace Maduramente, said yesterday that Cam made "new false and malicious imputations against Congressman Arroyo" on a television show Tuesday night.

Such statements could be the basis for a new libel complaint, she said.

Meanwhile, anti-jueteng crusader Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said yesterday that he planned to present two more witnesses when the Senate resumes its inquiry into the illegal numbers game on June 24. Cruz declined to identify them.

One of the witnesses, Cruz said, will bolster the accusations made by Cam and three whistleblowers. "He will cement the testimonies of the four other witnesses. I told him to listen to the testimonies of the other witnesses and tell me if he could affirm these."

Maduramente was one of President Arroyo’s lawyers during the controversial congressional canvassing of votes for president and vice president in last year’s elections.

Arroyo’s lawyer said in the TV interview, Cam claimed people close to Rep. Arroyo and his uncle, Negros Occidental Rep. Jose Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo, were attempting to bribe her to stop her exposé on jueteng.

She said the jueteng witness should expect more libel cases coming her way.

In her Senate testimony, Cam said she delivered P500,000 and P400,000 to Mikey Arroyo and Iggy Arroyo, respectively, at the Batasan complex in Quezon City last December.

Witnesses in congressional investigations enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution, provided they tell the truth.

The two Arroyos have denied Cam’s claim. They have filed libel charges in Pampanga and Negros Occidental against their accuser.

Mikey Arroyo is on an indefinite leave of absence as a congressman, while Iggy Arroyo is consulting with his constituents on whether to follow his nephew’s lead.

Cruz said his next witnesses knew Cam and the three other whistleblowers, all of them involved in jueteng. "In the jueteng circle, the higher your position becomes, the more you get to know each other."

Despite repeated government crackdowns, the small-town lotteries continue to thrive because local officials and the police reportedly have taken bribes and turn a blind eye.

Politicians are widely believed to be receiving huge political campaign donations from illegal gambling barons during elections.

Meanwhile, a publisher of a Bicol-based magazine disputed the testimony of one of Cruz’s witnesses, self-confessed jueteng operator Wilfredo Mayor.

Noel de Luna, publisher of Bicol Bloc, doubted Mayor’s claim that jueteng barons in the region raked in up to P90 million a month in profits.

"Even in late 2003 when jueteng was centralized in Bicol, it is highly improbable to raise such a huge amount. I was receiving then P18,000 every month from a jueteng lord. There is no jueteng operator that can collect P3 million from local bettors every day," De Luna told Manila-based reporters.

De Luna claimed he received a monthly jueteng payoff of P18,000 from April 2002 to late 2003. This was later reduced to P5,000 because of a crackdown on illegal gambling, he said.

De Luna refused to say whether other Bicol journalists were also on the take.

He also denied allegations that millions are collected weekly from jueteng operations in Bicol, saying jueteng barons long ago resorted to guerrilla operations to escape police detection. — Jess Diaz, Mike Frialde, Nestor Etolle