Displaced jueteng personnel turning to crimes

ANGELES CITY — With jueteng operations halted, now comes the "downside."

In this city alone, according to Mayor Carmelo Lazatin, some 5,000 families of jueteng cabos (supervisors) and cobradores (collectors) are going hungry, having been left with no source of income.

Lazatin cited reports that some jueteng personnel, particularly those in squatters’ areas, have resorted to theft and burglary.

Senior Superintendent Angelito Pacia, city police chief, could not be reached for comment on this supposed rise in crimes following the jueteng stoppage.

"I do not tolerate jueteng, but it seems that the priorities of those in the national government are wrong when it comes to combating crimes. There are worse crimes that need to be attended to before jueteng," Lazatin told The STAR.

The mayor admitted that he has yet to come up with a program to help the displaced jueteng personnel.

"There are about 5,000 families who survive on jueteng in Angeles," he said.

Jueteng cobradores earn a certain percentage from their collection of bets for every jueteng draw. They are also given a share of the winnings of any of their bettors.

The clampdown on jueteng operations started last Sept. 1 upon orders of Interior and Local Government Secretary Joey Lina.

While jueteng operations persisted in a few areas, including President Arroyo’s hometown of Lubao, where alleged gambling lord Bong Pineda also hails from, police said illegal gambling has been reduced to so-called "bookies" or those operated by groups of cobradores using the name of big-time gambling lords to survive.

A cobrador, who lives in a squatters’ area near the city police headquarters in Barangay Sto. Domingo here, said that since jueteng stopped over a week ago, trading and use of illegal drugs have become more rampant in his community.

"Bakit naman puro jueteng ang tinitira nila? Wala namang nagre-rape dahil sa jueteng, di tulad ng drugs (Why do they clamp down only on jueteng? No one has ever been raped because of jueteng , unlike with illegal drugs)," the cobrador said.

"Ngayong wala na ang jueteng, wala namang maitulong ang gobyerno sa mga apektado na halos wala nang makain (Now that jueteng is gone, the government cannot even help those adversely affected who don’t even have food to eat)," he added.

In the City of San Fernando, Mayor Reynaldo Aquino has ordered his social welfare office to conduct a study on how the displaced families could be provided alternative livelihood.

Over a week ago, both Pacia and Senior Superintendent Rodolfo Mendoza, Pampanga police director, declared this city and the entire province, respectively, as "almost 100 percent jueteng-free."

Mendoza admitted that the intensified drive against jueteng had, to some extent, adversely affected police operations against other forms of criminality, including illegal drugs.