Precinct chief takes heat for failure to stop ‘jueteng’

A precinct commander of the Pasig City police was sacked yesterday following the arrest by operatives from the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) of two jueteng bet collectors in his jurisdiction.

Ordered relieved was Inspector George Andrade, commander of Police Community Precinct 14 (PCP-14) in Barangay De la Paz.

"I will not allow jueteng to resurface in Metro Manila under my watch," said NCRPO chief Director Vidal Querol as he warned that "heads would roll" should his orders be ignored.

Querol said the successful anti-jueteng raid also serves as a "strike" against Senior Superintendent Francisco Uyami, chief of the Pasig City police.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) has imposed a three-strike policy against station commanders in Metro Manila and provincial commanders in the war against jueteng.

Uyami, a lawyer, claimed that the arrested suspects — Quintin Abrio and Hera Quino — were collecting bets for the Small Town Lottery (STL), a legalized version of the numbers game.

However, Superintendent Sotero Ramos Jr., head of the Regional Intelligence and Special Operations Office (RISOO), said they confiscated evidence showing the 24-16 winning combination of a jueteng draw last July 3 from Abrio and Quino.

The RISOO raiders also confiscated cash bets and jueteng paraphernalia.

Ramos pointed out that Abrio and Quino were caught in the act of collecting bets in Barangay De la Paz at about 1:30 p.m. by a RISOO team, composed of Inspector Jose Salazar, PO2 Ronaldo Balla, PO2 Dennis Cajayon, and PO2 Neptali Cipriano.

During tactical interrogation, Abrio admitted being the overall collection supervisor of jueteng in the said barangay.

According to Abrio, he collects the daily collections from his seven men in the barangay and hand them over to a "runner’ at the boundaries of the city and towns in Rizal.

"Naka-bisekleta lang daw ang kumukuha ng collection niya," Ramos said.

Abrio named his financier as a certain Bobbie, of Barangay Cogeo, in Antipolo City.

Senior Superintendent Felipe Rojas Jr., NCRPOs intelligence chief, said Andrade was the fifth ranking police official in Metro Manila to be sacked during Querol’s term for failure to act against jueteng.

Rojas said the NCRPO’s anti-jueteng and gambling operations is a continuing process. "Hindi namin papayagan na magbukas sila sa Metro Manila."– Non Alquitran