It’s more than a month now since Interior Secretary Joey Lina launched his second campaign against "jueteng" but the police have yet to take into custody a single big-time gambling lord or "big fish."
And worse, a group of retired and active policemen and civilian "tong" collectors continue making the rounds of illegal gambling joints in Metro Manila and the provinces confirming reports that "jueteng" lords are still at it.
Lina may have been huffing and puffing when he launched his "jueteng" campaign during the Illegal Gambling Summit in Camp Crame last April 3 but after a month, the big-time gambling lords seem to have successfully eluded police raids.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) issued a press release last week stating that its Task Force Jericho arrested 107 people in a series of raids in the metropolis and the provinces.
The raiders also confiscated "jueteng" paraphernalia and more or less P50,000 in cash bets.
A number of ranking police officials told The STAR that what Task Force Jericho got were cabos and bet collectors considered "small fries" in the "jueteng" business.
Task Force Jericho, they said, need not go to far flung areas of the country to conduct raids because "jueteng" continue to flourish in Metro Manila and the neighboring provinces of Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna and Cavite.
"Secretary Lina should start his effort by getting the "big fish" of illegal gambling to send a strong signal that they mean business in his "jueteng" campaign," a police official said.
Reports reaching Lina showed that there are 44 "jueteng" lords with distinct areas of operations in the country. They are raking in billions of pesos in daily collections, Lina said.
But despite Lina’s strong words and threats, however, the big-time "jueteng" lords seem to be not heeding his call to close shop and continue operating. Lina has still 11 months to go to make good his promise to curb "jueteng."
In Caloocan last Friday, six persons caught "reviewing" jueteng bets were arrested by the police.
Arrested were Jose Diaz, 40; Leonardo Navarro, 35; Rico Pascual, 18; Reynaldo dela Cruz, 55; Michael Gautani, 24; and Noel Santos, 32, all residents of Caloocan.
A certain "Santa," the alleged pointman in Caloocan City of a suspected gambling lord identified as Tony ‘Bolok’ Santos, eluded arrest, the police said.
Station Intelligence and Investigation Division (SIID) chief Superintendent Dionicio Borromeo said the suspects were caught red-handed while allegedly "reviewing" bets for the illegal numbers game popularly known as jueteng.
The review of jueteng bets or "pagrerebisa," according to jueteng aficionados, is precisely the secret in raking in profits in this illegal numbers game. Simply illustrated, jueteng personnel called "rebisadors" (reviewers) go over the bets prior to the drawing of the winning numbers and manipulate them.
Sources said the "rebisadors" choose the numbers with the least bets and make them win even before the actual draw. Draws are allegedly made twice or thrice a day. Also confiscated from the suspects were betting lists, ball pens, pencils and P3,040 in cash bets.