EDITORIAL – A lonely battle

From the start there were people who considered it a quixotic quest. In early April last year Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina Jr. vowed to stamp out jueteng, saying he would resign if he failed to achieve his objective within a year. Now Lina and his critics are debating whether the campaign has been a success or not, and even arguing over when his self-imposed one-year deadline is supposed to lapse.

Lina insists he kicked off his campaign on May 6 last year. He isn’t stepping down, and his department is trotting out the accomplishments of the campaign. Since its start the Philippine National Police has filed 56 criminal cases against 21 suspected major jueteng operators and financiers nationwide. Lina reports that from January last year until the first quarter of 2003, his department’s task force or Special Operations Group Jericho carried out 9,347 anti-jueteng operations, resulting in the arrest of 19,651 bet collectors, the confiscation of over P6.5 million in bet mo-ney and the filing of 5,914 criminal cases. Lina has declared the provinces of Aurora, Catanduanes, Marinduque, Mt. Province, Occidental Mindoro, Palawan and Romblon jueteng-free.

Lina said he wanted jueteng stopped because it was one of the biggest causes of corruption in the police and local governments. His campaign was launched with the dramatic relief of seven top police officers, a number of whom were deemed close to Malacañang. The seven were supposed to have been relieved over their failure to curb jueteng in their respective jurisdictions, but this became murky as the weeks passed. Most of the seven eventually rehabilitated their images, with one of them even getting a one-year extension recently. Last week Lina disbanded the 104-member Task Force Jericho, but a new one will reportedly be organized soon.

Lina may have the best intentions, but his campaign is saddled with weak laws, weak enforcers and a general lack of political will. Cops tasked to go after gambling lords admit that jueteng mo-ney often finances police operations. Penalties for illegal gambling are so light they are laughable, and lawmakers, a number of whom are beneficiaries of jueteng largesse, appear to be in no mood to change the status quo. The public for its part is confused about the difference between illegal gambling and state-run casinos and lottery. Lina is waging a lonely battle, and there is no rush in the national leadership to support him in his fight.