32 nabbed in anti-jueteng drive in Lina’s province

At least 32 people were arrested and P3,900 cash bets were recovered in a two-week intensified anti-jueteng drive waged by the Laguna police provincial command.

Senior Superintendent Nilo de la Cruz, Laguna police provincial director ordered the all-out war against illegal gambling amid reports that jueteng is back in the province and that its financiers have resorted to "guerrilla" — type of operations.

During the incumbency of Gov. Joey Lina, jueteng was totally banned in Laguna. Lina is now the Secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

The "guerrilla" – type operations waged by the jueteng lords could be a test case to Lina’s successor Gov. Ningning Lazaro on how she would deal with the problem, observers noted.

Lazaro, the acting governor when Lina was appointed to the DILG post, started serving her term last Saturday.

Alarmed by reports that jueteng is back in the province, De la Cruz formed a 30-man Special Task Force (STF) headed by SPO4 Wilson Quilala to go after the hard-headed gambling lords, identified as Charing Magbuhos, and two others only known by their aliases as Cueto and Fajardo.

De la Cruz said 14 of Magbuhos’ cabos and bet collectors were arrested during successive raids in San Pablo City.

Twelve of Fajardo’s men were collared in separate raids in Calamba and four of Cueto’s workers were cornered in Sta. Maria town.

Those arrested, according to De la Cruz, claimed they were handing out weekly protection money to local policemen.

"I already ordered the STF to arrest the scalawags in uniform," said De la Cruz. "There will be no sacred cows in our effort to rid the province of jueteng."

Quilala admitted to The Star that its hard for them to conduct raids without being detected because gambling lords deploy civilian lookouts to monitor their presence.

They also failed to recover larger cash evidence because of the "draw now, pay later" scheme employed by jueteng lords in the province. — Non Alquitran