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Saturday, October 02, 2004
Bishop links politicians, mayors to jueteng
By Marie Neri
MANILA -- Four politicians holding national positions and six mayors are alleged "protectors" of jueteng and other illegal numbers games in the country.
Dagupan-Lingayen Archbishop Oscar Cruz, former president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), made the disclosure during a press briefing on the campaign against illegal gambling in the country.
Cruz however refused to name the officials, who according to him, are receiving as high as P6 million to P10 million a month.
He said a monthly payoff to the government officials involved comes in cash and there are no receipts to protect the identity of the alleged gambling protectors noting that one of the two alleged protectors get P10 million while the rest receive P6 million monthly.
Of the 10 government officials, four are politicians holding national positions while the rest are mayors.
Of the four politicians, two of them are allegedly "mere protectors" while the two others are allegedly "physically involved in the operations of jueteng and part of the syndicated gambling."
But Cruz said it would be hard to pin them down on the illegal activities because they use dummies as well as goons and guns to protect their identity.
The CBCP senior officials also noted that the influence of the four ranking government officials holding key positions in the government could reach all the regions.
"What we know are names, their positions, area of operations, their influence by region and these covers Luzon and Visayas," Cruz said.
Cruz said he could not release the name of the officials until they have been verified fully.
"We have stopped on all these four counts and we seem to find nobody else above those four. They are all active in the government," Cruz said.
Cruz said he has forwarded the names of the officials to PNP Chief Edgardo Aglipay for verification and to establish firmly the connections of these officials to jueteng lords.
Meanwhile, six mayors receive P500,000 as monthly payola or payoff and jueteng operators earns P30 billion in the operations.
Aglipay who signified his support to the campaign of the Krusadang Bayan Laban sa Jueteng said they will not hesitate to arrest government officials involved in jueteng operations.
Cruz and Aglipay called on legislators to revise the law on gambling and make the penalties stiffer to ensure that gambling would be eradicated.
Msgr. Hernando Coronel, secretary general of the CBCP, on the other hand said Cruz has the full support of the CBCP in his crusade against jueteng.
"CBCP will back up Archbishop Cruz in investigating the four (government) leaders," Coronel said, adding that they will also coordinating with other sectors on the elimination of corruption in the government.
(October 2, 2004 issue)
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