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Friday, July 07, 2006
Tomas belittles report; cops start crackdown
Mayor Tomas Osmeña doesn’t see masiao operations as a major problem in Cebu City, adding that he believes illegal cockfighting or tigbakay is “50 times” a more serious worry.
“My impression is that masiao is not a problem here, compared to tigbakay and video carrera,” he said. The mayor lives in Guadalupe, where masiao is rampant, according to a report aired Tuesday night by the ABS-CBN program “Bandila.”
But if lotto sales are any indication, masiao has not posed a threat to revenues for the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), the PCSO general manager said.
While some government officials downplayed masiao as a threat, the police cracked down on suspected players in the illegal numbers game in Cebu City and Lapu-Lapu City.
Agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 7 arrested yesterday a 56-year-old resident of Dalaguete, Cebu for allegedly distributing masiao tip sheets. He was caught in Cebu City.
In Lapu-Lapu City, the police caught a group that allegedly duped people into paying for number combinations that they said would win the next day’s masiao draw.
The arrests confirm that masiao has survived in Cebu despite the absence of jai alai games.
In a telephone interview, Guadalupe Barangay Captain Eugenio Faelnar acknowledged masiao might still be present in his barangay. He promised to immediately look into the possibility by deploying tanods and barangay intelligence personnel.
Bandila reported that tip sheets are still sold in Guadalupe and masiao ushers still solicit bets.
Faelnar, however, added the report could be outdated because masiao has been stamped out of his barangay two years ago. What he heard was that suertres, another illegal numbers game where bettors could double or triple the prize money of the winning combination, has taken its place.
Last Wednesday, the Cebu City Council told local police authorities and all the 80 barangays to submit in 10 days a report on masiao operations in their communities.
Tip sheets
City Councilor Procopio Fernandez, chairman of the council committee on police, fire, penology and public safety, earlier said barangays and the police monitored its operation.
But the illegal numbers game “still managed to thrive, especially in remote areas.”
Not just remote areas, apparently.
Sonny Tabares was arrested at 3:30 a.m. yesterday on R. Landon Street, Cebu City for alleged possession of 3,400 tip sheets, reportedly for distribution in the southern part of Cebu.
Tabares, who was presented to the media, admitted being a tip sheet dealer for the past six years. He said he distributes these tip sheets in the southern parts of Cebu, particularly in Dalaguete, Argao and Samboan.
He said he sold each tip sheet at P1.25 to at least 20 coordinators in these municipalities. He also said he knew that peddling masiao tip sheets is illegal but he has to feed his two children and four relatives who depend on him.
He estimated his earnings at P1,000 a day.
Tabares, however, said that masiao operations have decreased because of the government-initiated Suertes Lotto of the PCSO.
“I used to order up to 9,000 copies, but now that’s down to 3,000 because business has slowed down,” he said.
CIDG 7 Officer Jose Jorge Corpuz said Tabares will be charged today with dealing in the illegal numbers game. If found guilty, he will face a jail term of six to eight years.
In a separate interview, PCSO General Manager William Medici said that at present, their office makes P3.5 to P3.6 million per day in the Visayas and Mindanao.
Of that, 35 percent represents proceeds from suertres lotto.
Ironically, it is the televised suertres draw that some masiao operators are allegedly using as basis for their illegal operations.
Numbers deal
In Lapu-Lapu City, it was a different racket at play.
Police bagged a group that allegedly swindled people into buying number combinations, which they said would win the next day.
One of the suspects is the brother of a Danao City policeman.
The group was collecting cash from its intended victim, not knowing that policemen, contacted earlier, were near the scene.
A Lapu-Lapu City police report identified the suspects as Michael Batulan Peralta, 27; Adonis Bazon Avelino, 37; and Michael Sabero Oliverio, 24.
Peralta is from Carmen, Cebu while Avelino and Oliverio are both from Danao City.
Their faces were bruised during their arrest. PO1 Ritchie Aballe said by-standers mauled the suspects, thinking they were snatchers when they tried to flee from the police.
Arresting officers found different three-digit number combinations, packs of what appeared to be shabu and an eight-inch knife from the suspects.
Police are now preparing a swindling case against the three, a separate illegal possession of a bladed weapon case against Avelino and a separate case for drugs against Peralta.
The three-digit number combinations, wrapped in plastic, were found inside a black bag with some Chinese medicine.
PO2 Jupiter Nurab said that a combination was sold last July 5, 2006 to 28-year-old Marites Talara Anam for P2,000. The suspects convinced her that the combination would be the winning result the following day.
Hours later, the group called her again and told her that the number was already sold out. They again offered another combination to her for P899.
She agreed, but immediately sought the help of the Lapu-Lapu City police. (RHM/JST/OCP/EOB)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 7, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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