Crackdown on jueteng ordered

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan, Philippines  – Gov. Amado Espino Jr. has ordered the provincial police to crack down on jueteng.

Espino’s order came a few minutes after President Aquino gave orders to Philippine National Police chief Director General Raul Bacalzo to stamp out the said illegal numbers game last week.

Espino directed Police Senior Superintendent Rosueto Ricaforte, the new Pangasinan police director, to spare no one in the campaign, including local officials believed to be coddling gambling lords.

“We should not squander time and effort in flushing out the illegal numbers game,” the governor said, even as he urged Ricaforte to also mount a similar drive on all forms of illegal activities in the province.

The governor, however, took a snide at sweeping allegations by political detractors in the media that jueteng was driving the marginalized sectors of society to poverty.

“These are crazy and irresponsible statements,” Espino said, as he dared members of the working press to cite a case where a family became poor, or a couple parting ways, because of betting on jueteng.

Espino said that playing mah-jong, tong-its (local version of poker), or gambling in cockfights or at the casinos on long hours could be more of a cause for marriage break-ups.

He also called on police authorities to discourage the public from placing bets on jueteng.

Meanwhile, a close political ally of President Aquino in the north yesterday admitted that their family was once behind the operations of jueteng in northern Cagayan province.

Former Cagayan third district representative Manuel Mamba claimed that except for the municipality of Tuao, their family’s hometown, the operations of illegal numbers game continued to persist almost throughout the province.

Mamba, the Liberal Party chairman of Cagayan, said that their family used to be the operator of the illegal lottery in the province’s third district, particularly in their hometown from early 1980s to 1992.

However, since 1992, Mamba said that their family, who included Tuao town Mayor William Mamba, had totally cut any links to any forms of illegal gambling.

A three-term congressman twice over, Mamba, who lost in the last gubernatorial race to incumbent Cagayan Gov. Alvaro Antonio, said that they were only forced to operate jueteng within their political turf to block the entry of other operators from other areas. 

Now a known anti-jueteng crusader, Mamba, one of the founding members of Pangasinan Archbishop Oscar Cruz’s Krusadang Ba­yan Laban sa Jueteng, said that never during his last three congressional terms has jueteng set foot in his district, especially in their hometown. 

But now that he is out as congressman, Mamba claimed that their hometown is the only jueteng-free area among the more than 20 Caga­yan towns.    –  Cesar Ramirez, Charlie Lagasca