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Monday, September 20, 2004
12 nabbed in revived jueteng operations
By Ernie N. Olson Jr.
TWELVE suspected jueteng personnel were arrested and P2,150 in alleged bet collections were seized in a series of raids conducted by personnel of the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) in a reported gambling den along Marcos Highway the past days.
This resulted, after a newly entrenched jueteng financier and his designated illegal gambling operator started clandestine guerilla operations in Baguio City and adjoining towns of Benguet since September 15.
Sources revealed the former financier and his 'management staff' had since stopped operations last September 5, while a separate operation by a different financier continued unabated in the northern towns of Benguet.
Senior Supt. Marvin Bolabola, PNP-CIDG regional chief for the Cordilleras, identified three of those arrested in their first raid on Thursday as Chito Valencia Mangurali, 26; Jay-Ar Evangelista Mendoza, 27; and Gerald Quasay Mendoza, 22. All three hail from Lucena City.
Two others nabbed during that same raid conducted around 12:10 p.m. were Esmeralda Padayao Torres, 31, and Joel Manalo Escala, 30.
Both are reportedly from Quezon Province.
"Personnel from our office conducted this anti-gambling operation at Km. 5 of Marcos Highway. This resulted in the apprehension of these suspects and the confiscation of jueteng bet money amounting to P900 in P1 and P5 denominations as well as assorted jueteng paraphernalia. Said items were confiscated in the possession and control of these respondents while they were in the act of checking and arranging jueteng bets," Bolabola said.
The following day, CIDG personnel conducted another raid on the same reported gambling den and arrested seven other suspects.
Another P1,250 in bet collections and other jueteng paraphernalia were also seized then.
Bolabola identified those collared as Jovet Umali Ramirez, 40; Lope Umali Andal, 49; Rolando Hernandez Silva, 31; Jun Bustillo Reyes, 36; Justine Lubay Marasigan, 21; Darwin Kalaw Perez, 26; and Erwin Reyes Mendoza, 30.
All 12 suspected illegal gambling personnel were detained at the Baguio City Jail on charges for their alleged violation of Presidential Decree 1602 or the Illegal Gambling Law.
A source, meanwhile, said that since the start of operations of the newly entrenched financier's group here, three draws were held on September 15 and only two draws the following two days.
(September 20, 2004 issue)
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