A view of Sandra Cam and company

If you were a staunch anti-administration, you would like my suggestion that there are no more famous people today than the family names Cam, Mayor, Zuce, Manalo and others. In a campaign spearheaded by Archbishop Cruz, they are selfless and courageous individuals, if not virtual heroes, who are dedicating their lives to slay this ageless social scourge called jueteng. Conversely, if you are a believer of Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, you would denounce Cam and company as infamous personalities. They are scoundrels whose main ignoble objective is to serve as willing fronts to a somewhat devious goal of toppling the present administration.

Culling from these opposing characterizations, I can simplify the scenario. Mention these surnames and persons around you either break into a mischievous smile or twitch in contempt. There are but two vitriolic sides whose middle ground has long since lost being entertaining. That simple. But, whether one has praises or jeers for them, the indubitable fact is that their names revolve around jueteng.

The story of Cam and company is easy to follow. They have come forward to tell us that alleged jueteng operators lined millions of pesos into the pockets of the members of the first family. Serving either as bribe or protection money, the sole objective of the fund transfers was to secure protection from law enforcers who are perceived to act according to the dictates of the powers that be. Worse, somewhere in their statements, Cam's companions pronounced that substantial sums of those jueteng funds were used to subvert the will of the Filipino electorate as the wherewithal that oiled the re-election campaign machine of Pres. Arroyo.

To strengthen their exposé, Cam and company confessed that at certain periods of their lives, they were, in unimaginable ways, deeply involved in jueteng. In other words, they were themselves, parties to the crime. Lawyers would call Cam and company's act as declaration against interest, an admissible piece of evidence. (The philosophy of its admissibility, if only to state the obvious, is that it is not normal for anyone to make statements against his own interest so that it must be true when he does so.)

In a more recent television interview, Cam and Mayor expressed an ultimate motivation. Seeming to express that the interest of the country tugged their conscience, they hoped their exposé would help rid our people of illegal gambling. And that was why, it was not difficult for them to seek sanctuary in the ministry of Archbishop Cruz. Again, because their anchor was "declaration against interest", I could only cast aside my bias against them and, if only temporarily, take their word for value.

From the immoral act that jueteng simply was, it has become a criminal monster that has sapped the economy of our less endowed people. Anyone who claims to have inside information on this criminal activity and who offers a hand to fight it must be coddled, utilized and protected. Cam and company, self-proclaimed insiders and declarants against interest, should have been so considered. Their knowledge of jueteng operation is the breakthrough our authorities have been waiting for. Surely, this illegal gambling monster can be finally slain if Cam and company's declarations, pursued to logical end, eventually unmask the protectors who may be occupying the highest posts in our government.

Yet, I can not understand why there seems to be an all out effort to shatter their credibility instead. Really, I am baffled to observe the determined exertion of special efforts to destroy them. What horrifies me even more is that our government agencies appear to be orchestrating these efforts. I thought illegal gambling is the enemy of the state. Why protect jueteng by fighting those who, like Cam and company, only seek to put an end to it?