This, as at least 62 people were arrested and P5,000 cash bets were seized in separate raids in the two provinces last Wednesday by elements of the anti-gambling task force of Interior and Local Government Secretary Joey Lina.
Thirty-eight of the suspects were caught in the act of drawing winning number combinations in a jueteng den in Barangay Callao Norte, Lasam, Cagayan.
The Task Force Jericho, led by Chief Superintendent Manuel Cabigon, arrested the rest of the suspects in Minabalac, Camarines Sur.
But Cabigon said no charges could be filed against the suspected jueteng financier, a certain Bong, for lack of direct evidence head of the Task Force Jericho, swooped down at the jueteng den located at Barangay Callao Norte, Lasam, in Cagayan.
According to Cabigon, majority of those arrested were jueteng personnel and bet collectors who gathered in the area to witness the draw. They surrendered peacefully to a team of Jericho raiders led by Chief Inspector Christopher Birung.
In Camarines Sur, those arrested were also caught in the act drawing their winning combinations at Barangay San Juan, San Lorenzo in Minabalac town. The 24 people cornered inside the jueteng den were personnel and bet collectors, said Cabigon.
In the twin raids, Jericho agents confiscated jueteng paraphernalia like calculators, "bolilyo", notebooks, stampad, ink, staplers, ballpens, pad papers and P5,000 cash in different denominations.
According to Cabigon, the financier of the Camarines Sur jueteng was a certain Bong Villafuerte. He said those arrested in Cagayan named their financier as a certain Reyes of Bulacan.
Cabigon said they cannot file charges against Villafuerte and Reyes as yet because of the absence of direct evidence.
Reports reaching Cabigon showed that gambling lords have lied low weeks before the May 6 deadline imposed by Lina upon himself to stamped out jueteng in the country.
But a few days after the deadline lapsed, the gambling lords operations went full blast and Cabigon is out to disrupt their illegal business. — Non Alquitran