5 nabbed in Caloocan gambling den raid

MANILA, Philippines - Police arrested at least five alleged jueteng bookies during a raid on a suspected gambling den in Caloocan City yesterday afternoon.

Caloocan City police chief Senior Superintendent Jude Santos identified the suspects as Elenita de Vega, 59; Elvira Gayola, 60; Nora Minada, 39; Noel Flores, 54; and Basilio Mato-Bato, 56, all residents of Caloocan City North.

The police seized from the suspects P600 bet money, 12 sets of jueteng bet lists, seven red pencils, nine ballpens, a calculator and a cutter.

Chief Inspector Moner Orang, Caloocan City police Sub-station 4 commander, said the suspects were arrested at the house of De Vega, the alleged jueteng kabo or the jueteng collectors’ supervisor, in Barangay 185 near the common boundary of Caloocan, Quezon City and Bulacan at around 2 p.m.

“De Vega is tagged as the jueteng kabo while the rest of the suspects are her collectors. They were just in the process of revising the lists during the raid,” Orang told The STAR.

Chief Inspector Rodrigo Soriano, Caloocan City police station investigation chief, said the suspects were reportedly working for a certain “Togo,” a gambling personality based in Quezon City.

“The local police are working hard to get rid of all forms of illegal gambling in Caloocan, especially jueteng, but some still try to carry out their illegal activity. They do it in areas where they could easily evade arrest,” Soriano said.

Mayor Enrico Echiverri earlier directed Santos to strengthen their campaign against the illegal numbers game jueteng and other forms of illegal gambling in Caloocan City.

Echiverri had been urging his constituents “not to patronize jueteng or any form of illegal gambling to ultimately stop the prohibited game of chance” in Caloocan.

The mayor also warned police officers engaged in illegal gambling that “the local government will not think twice in filing appropriate charges against them.”

The Philippine National Police has a standing “strike one” policy, wherein a police station commander will automatically be relieved from his post when other police units arrest jueteng personnel in their jurisdiction.