Rosales blows top over cannibalized game machines

Manila Police District (MPD) director Chief Superintendent Roberto Rosales blew his top after discovering that two of the 49 illegal gambling machines scheduled for burning yesterday did not have central processing units (CPUs).

Sources said unscrupulous policemen often remove the CPU of an illegal gambling machine that is due to be destroyed, and transfer it to another machine.

Rosales castigated a police official responsible for bringing video karera machines without CPUs or motherboards.

The official brought the missing CPUs, saying they fell from the machines during the raids. But Rosales warned the official that he will be relieved if he fails to confiscate at least 10 video karera machines with CPUs by Friday next week.

“I am giving other officials a stern warning that they face relief if these illegal gambling machines proliferate in their areas of jurisdiction,” Rosales said.

Rosales and Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim torched 43 video karera and six fruit game machines yesterday morning.

Lim warned policemen that they will face the full force of the law if they are proven to have acted as maintainers or protectors of gambling machine operators.

He directed Rosales to continue the confiscation of the machines because they “destroy the moral fiber of the people.”

Operatives of the MPD’s District Intelligence and Operations Unit under Senior Superintendent Pablo Balagtas seized most of the machines.