'No illegal numbers game in Manila'

MANILA, Philippines - An intelligence officer of the Manila Police District has debunked reports that jueteng has resurfaced in Paco and Tondo districts.

Following the directive of MPD director Chief Superintendent Roberto Rongavilla, intelligence operatives have discreetly monitored the concerned areas, and so far the reports have proven to be false.

“We have placed certain areas of Paco and Tondo under surveillance. So far we have not found any jueteng activities in these areas,” said District Police Intelligence and Operations Unit head Chief Inspector Fernando Opelanio.

Rongavilla is reacting to a report of the National Bureau of Investigation that jueteng lords have been testing the waters in Manila and are keen in putting up jueteng in the city.

He warned his 11 police station commanders of relief if found coddling jueteng operators. Reports showed that a certain “Samson” is financing jueteng operations in Manila, specifically Paco and Tondo.

However, Rongavilla said that so far no law enforcement agency has arrested any jueteng personnel in Manila, unlike in Taguig and Caloocan where NBI agents nabbed at least eight jueteng maintainers, bet collectors and cabos as a result of the bureau’s anti-gambling operations.

The report said the arrested suspects, who were brought to the NBI headquarters, underwent a series of tactical interrogation that eventually pinpointed to a certain Tony Santos, Santa, Onard and Sherwin as behind jueteng activities in Caloocan City, while A. Manuela was tagged as gambling operator in Taguig and Muntinlupa City.

There are reports that Manuela has tied up with Santos to finance jueteng in Manila.

“This only proves that despite a crackdown on jueteng, gambling lords are slowly trying to penetrate Manila to establish their operations,” Rongavilla said.