Senate wants to summon Hagedorn on jueteng

The Senate wants anti-jueteng czar and Puerto Princesa City Mayor Edward Hagedorn to appear before the committees conducting inquiries into the operations of the illegal numbers game and the alleged protection provided by government officials.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. urged Senators Manuel Villar Jr. and Lito Lapid to summon Hagedorn as head of the administration’s Anti-Jueteng Task Force to appear before the Senate panels.

Villar heads the Senate committees on public order and illegal drugs while Lapid chairs the committee on games and amusement. The two committees are holding simultaneous hearings on jueteng and on reports that members of the First Family were receiving millions of pesos in protection money from the operations.

Pimentel expressed alarm over Hagedorn’s statements indicating that the jueteng problem was far from eliminated.

Pimentel was referring to reports that guerrilla or "kangaroo" jueteng operations still crop up; that the "Small Town Lottery," a legal betting system, is being revived as an alternative to jueteng; and that illegal masiao remains rampant in the Visayas and Mindanao.

"In all likelihood, jueteng lords are just lying low while the heat is on. Even Mayor Hagedorn admits that jueteng may bounce back if law enforcers slacken in the (anti-illegal gambling) campaign," Pimentel said.

He also reiterated his call to summon Batangas Gov. Armando Sanchez and Pampanga provincial board member Lilia Pineda and her husband, suspected Central Luzon jueteng kingpin Rodolfo "Bong" Pineda, to testify.

The failure of the two Senate committee chairmen to invite these key players in the jueteng operations would create the impression that these personalities enjoy protection from powerful national officials and are untouchable, Pimentel warned.

"I want the two investigating committees to act on my request," he said. "It would look ugly if there will be no sincere effort to find out the truth." — Christina Mendez

New witnesses have come forward to shed light on the "unholy alliance among jueteng lords, civilian government officials, and men in uniform," he added.

Prior to the Congress recess from Sept. 10 to 18, the Senate had heard several witnesses — including self-confessed jueteng bagwoman Sandra Cam, displaced jueteng operator Wilfredo "Boy" Mayor and Michaelangelo Zuce, the former assistant of presidential adviser Joey Rufino, regarding what they said were vast illegal gambling operations in the country.

Following their testimony, witness Richard Garcia and Abraham Demosthenes Riva confessed that they were forced by the opposition to link First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo and some of President Arroyo’s relatives to the alleged jueteng protection racket.

Villar said his committee will come out with a resolution once all available witnesses have been heard. — Christina Mendez