Saturday, February 23, 2008 Cebu City campaign 'successful' with fewer video carreras seized
THE video carrera problem in Cebu City is “dwindling,” as gleaned from the falling number of seized machines in the past three years.
And the campaign is not relaxing, with 82 confiscated units destroyed by a backhoe at the back of the City Hall yesterday afternoon.
The destruction was supervised by City Councilor Augustus Pe Jr.’s executive assistant Joeling Lazarte, who said that at P20,000 per unit, the City has destroyed P31.28 million worth of video carreras since 2005.
The machines were stored at the City Hall annex building after different police stations and barangays turned them over.
Pe, City Council committee on public order and safety chairman, took over as councilor-in-charge of fighting illegal gambling in February 2005 after Mayor Tomas Osmeńa tasked him to lead the campaign.
That was after the City Government noted a resurgence of illegal gambling machines following a short lull in anti-gambling operations, which was enough for the “kangaroo type” video carrera operation to stage a comeback.
82 destroyed
That time, video carreras were brought to a barangay at night and taken away at dawn to elude detection by police.
Those that used to be displayed in plain view were placed inside bathrooms or on the second floor of houses.
This made it more difficult for police to confiscate the units, since search warrants were needed to enter the houses.
Yesterday afternoon, 47 of the 82 destroyed machines were video carreras while the rest were moli-moli units.
Some 745 units were seized in 2005, 419 in 2006, and 400 in 2007.
And while P235,000 cash were taken from inside the seized machines in 2005, there was just P153,000 in 2006 and P65,000 in 2007.
Lazarte, though, said they could not determine yet the total amount of coins inside the 82 units destroyed as the Task Force on Street Children at the Parian Drop-in Center has not yet given them the official receipts.
Gambling money turned over to the task force is used to buy food and school materials of indigenous children under its wing.
Lazarte said the campaign will continue until all barangays are declared video carrera-free.
“We’ll see who will give up first since we won’t stop confiscating these machines,” he said in Cebuano. RHM
