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Thursday, June 02, 2005
3 jueteng 'bagmen' sue witness for libel
By Benjamin B. Pulta and Marie S. Neri
MANILA -- Three friends of Pampanga Representative Mikey Arroyo filed charges of libel and false testimony Wednesday against a former jueteng operator who claimed he gave jueteng protection money to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's son through alleged bagmen.
Former transportation assistant secretary Rene E. Maglangue, stockbroker Leon Katigbak, and former vice mayor Arthur Naguit filed separate charges before the Department of Justice against Wilfredo Mayor, handing out copies of their complaints to journalists.
As a general rule, any testimony given in legislative inquiries is considered "privileged communication".
Mayor said in a joint inquiry by the Senate committees on games and amusement and on public order and illegal drugs that he gave jueteng protection money to Congressman Arroyo, when he was still vice governor of Pampanga, and to National Police chief Arturo Lomibao, when Lomibao was still Pangasinan police director, although he had no evidence that Arroyo and Lomibao did receive the payola.
Mayor said that in 2001, he started to give a monthly protection money of P600,000 in cash to Congressmen Arroyo through Naguit. He added that he met Naguit in Baguio and later at the Rembrandt Hotel in Quezon City together with Rene Maglaque, an undersecretary of the transportation and communications department.
In his complaint, Maglanque said he has never met Mayor and that he never attended any meeting with Mayor at Hotel Rembrandt.
Naguit, for his part, claimed he knew Mayor through a business deal to buy and sell scrap metal in Pampanga. He claimed that Mayor befriended him to make him a go-between with the younger Arroyo.
Mayor claimed that operators of the illegal numbers game jueteng are usually given a trial period of five days before starting full-scale operations to show they are already protected by authorities.
He also said that even if he never talked about jueteng protection directly with responsible government officials, the fact that not a single jueteng operator was ever arrested indicated the bagmen were legitimate.
The Senate decided to give protection to Mayor after he claimed that he and his family's lives were in danger because of his disclosures.
Also supporting Mayor is Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles, who lauded him for being brave in telling the truth about jueteng.
Arguelles said it is time that somebody speaks up and exposes jueteng operations in the country as he believes that the illegal numbers game is one of the causes of corruption and crime in the country.
"Jueteng is just the tip of the iceberg of gambling culture that grows in the country because based on my observation, I think illegal gambling is related to the escalating cases of killings, vices, drugs, anomalies and sex joints," Arguelles said.
He also said he was informed that jueteng payola for local government officials in Batangas province is at P10,000 monthly.
Arguelles took exception to an earlier declaration by National Police Chief Lomibao that Luzon is already jueteng-free because the illegal numbers game still continues to operate in many areas.
"We can never be jueteng free if we are not jueteng lord-free," said Arguelles.
(June 2, 2005 issue)
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