The jueteng workers, mostly cobradores (bet collectors) and cabos (chief collectors), also asked local church officials to facilitate the release of their 13 colleagues who were arrested during a raid conducted by the Camp Crame-based anti-illegal gambling task force in nearby Solano town last Monday.
"We ask the bishop to stop opposing jueteng. Provide us first with alternative livelihood so we will refrain from collecting bets," said Armano Infantre, 53, chief cabo of this capital town, during a one-hour dialogue with Villena’s representatives.
Fr. Enrique Tiongson, who calmly faced the irate jueteng workers together with Fr. Tony Palina, said the bishop was "out of town."
The two priests assured the jueteng workers that they would bring their "grievances" and demands to Villena as soon he arrives.
"If you cannot give us jobs for our families, then you should stop opposing jueteng. We know this is illegal but we cannot do anything since this is the only way for us to survive. The government cannot provide us other jobs," 53-year-old Eusebio Lacangan, a polio victim, said in the dialect.
Lacangan, one of the chief cabos in Solano town, said he has been involved in jueteng for more than 20 years, enabling him to support himself and his two adopted children.
"I don’t know how to feed myself and my children now… The bishop took our very means of livelihood," he said.
Lacangan said he and hundreds of other jueteng workers would demand a dialogue with Villena next week.
"We want the bishop to face us and not anyone else. He should know and feel our sentiments," said bet collector Nonoy Magno.
Magno, 46, said he was able to send his three children to school because of his earnings from jueteng.
The cabos told Tiongson and Palina that they were earning at least P200 each a day from collecting bets, besides "commissions" of as much as P2,000 daily from winning bets.
Lacangan, the most outspoken in the group, said nearly 3,000 jueteng workers, most of whom were the breadwinners of their families, had become jobless since last Monday’s raid in Solano town.
"We demand the bishop to help us in the release of our poor colleagues," said Lacangan.
Following the successful Solano raid, Philippine National Police chief Director General Arturo Lomibao ordered the immediate relief of Senior Superintendent Robert Mangaccat, provincial police director, and Chief Inspector Francisco Palattao, the town’s police chief.
The raid came two days after Lomibao, who once served as police director here, visited the province.
Villena reportedly brought the resurgence of jueteng in the province to Lomibao’s attention, prompting the latter to field his anti-gambling operatives for last Monday’s raid.