Nueva Vizcaya gov offers rewards for seizure of video karera machines

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya — In her effort to regain Nueva Vizcaya’s image as illegal gambling-free, Gov. Luisa Lloren-Cuaresma is offering cash incentives to those able to confiscate illegal gambling machines.

Provincial administrator Epifanio Galima, meanwhile, dared local police officials to "better resign" if they cannot do their job of confiscating video karera machines now proliferating in the province.

Cuaresma said a policeman or a police team gets an incentive of P1,000 for every illegal gambling machine confiscated.

She said she has directed the provincial legal office to study the legality of extending the same incentives to civilians who could provide information on the operations of video karera and so-called fruit games.

"Barring any legal impediment in extending cash rewards, we will also extend these to civilian informants," she said.

Meanwhile, Cuaresma said she acted on her own when she conducted a series of raids on gambling dens in her hometown of Bambang last week, seizing at least five machines.

"I did it on my own and not anybody’s initiative," she said.

She said her move had nothing to do with an earlier resolution filed by two board members denouncing the proliferation of video karera, fruit games and other forms of illegal gambling in the province, especially in the premier towns of Solano, Bambang and Bayombong.

In a related development, provincial board member Maybelle Blossom Dumlao, who authored the resolution, said sanctions must be imposed on local policemen who fail to go after illegal gambling operators.

"Nobody is to be blamed here, except the police," she said.

Dumlao was reacting to a comment of Senior Superintendent Robert Mangaccat, provincial police director, who was quoted as saying that the board members should review the local police code first before issuing any statements that would demean the stature of local law enforcers. — Charlie Lagasca