‘STL shameful substitute for jueteng’

DAGUPAN CITY — Small town lottery is meant as a shameful substitute for jueteng, according to Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz, the country’s top anti-jueteng advocate.

Cruz said this in a statement as Puerto Princesa City Mayor Edward Hagedorn, appointed by President Arroyo as National Anti-Jueteng Task Force czar, is pushing for STL’s revival in an effort to totally stamp out jueteng in the country. Hagedorn has a self-imposed deadline of Sept. 15 to totally stop jueteng in the country.

STL was launched during the time of then President Corazon Aquino under the auspices of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office from 1987 to 1990 but it failed due to many reasons.

Hagedorn is proposing that this time local government units operate STL to ensure government’s share that will be given back for social services. But Cruz, chairman of the Krusadang Bayan Laban sa Jueteng, said, " But just the same it is also a corrupt and corrupting numbers game as jueteng. It was already tried before and proved to be a big failure." He noted that there is now an effort to "perfect it". "Those who say this underestimate the vicious ingenuity of seasoned gambling moguls and their cohorts," Cruz said.

If STL replaces jueteng, as some 500 mayors have signed a covenant to rid the country of jueteng during their meeting last week in Puerto Princesa City, Cruz said, "Something must be wrong somewhere in this situation. There is the official drive to get rid of one form of gambling only to introduce another way of gambling."

Cruz said there is the resolve to get the money of the poor simply to fill-in the pockets of the gambling oligarchs and their corrupt beneficiaries. The absence of available decent jobs is responded to by the abundance of gambling from top to bottom of Philippine Society, he added.

The prelate said that much more disturbing is the thought that when a vice is legalized, this becomes a virtue. There is also the thinking that no holds are barred when government wants to have more money which is anyhow lost to who knows where and what, he also said.

Cruz said there is Pagcor for the wealthy and the influential, lotto and bingo for the middle class with money to throw away and the time to lose, there are jueteng, masiao and other illegal numbers games for the poor and the destitute. "This is gambling for all people. There is gambling all over the land," he said.

"He added that there was even the contemplated infamous bingo combo as a replacement of jueteng. "Yet, it is also jueteng in substance supposed to be clothed with legality. This was exposed for what it was. And it seems that it has been shelved at least for the time being," he said.

Recalling the statement earlier made by no less than Presidential Spokesman and Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye that "There is enough gambling in the country," with the revival of STL, Cruz asked, "Would the good Presidential Spokesperson be not once again betrayed and shamed by the one he speaks for?" — Eva Visperas