Wednesday, April 23, 2008 Mercado: Jueteng War (2) By Ram Mercado First Person
ANGELES City Mayor Francis Nepomuceno, contrary to my allegation that he lacks political will, padlocked anew the small-town lottery (STL) headquarters of the PCSO supervised franchisee for operating without a Business Permit.
"Wala ng atrasan dito," City Hall executive and spokesman Mark Sison reported. "We are enforcing a law, we are simply doing our job to run after violator" he said of the other day's raid/closure of the STL office at Lourdes Sur East.
Sison said Mayor Nepo has taken the offensive to send signal he will fight the powerful people behind the local STL, said to be a cover for jueteng.
City Hall suspected that certain Sweepstakes Office officials have been in cahoots with the local STI operator who had allegedly misdeclared, under-reported, and manipulated its actual collection resulting in loss of solid revenues for the city.
City officials disclosed the economic damage that bookie operations using STL as shield have caused the community. The bet collectors siphoned millions of pesos from money circulating in Angeles and remitted this to the suspect jueteng operator who holds manipulated draws in North San Fernando.
"Ito'y pera ng mga taga-Angeles na ginagasta sa ibang lugal," the mayor's spokesman added.
Nepomuceno's leaders were alarmed at how STL and illegal game (jueteng) adversely affect the mayor's re-election chances.
As this developed, jueteng operations under STL cover had ceased since last Monday as the local police, sensing the angry mayor and his impatience on the lack of results versus jueteng, threw a city-wide dragnet to apprehend bet collectors.
Nepomuceno's chief nemesis, Representative Tarzan Lazatin, meanwhile, had made his counter-attack on Blueboy. He had been reported making rounds of his friends in the Palace and the DILG to have Nepomuceno and seven councilors allied with him, suspended from office.
Reported ground of the suspension move was the alleged illegal ordinances enacted by the City Council, and approved by the Mayor. Lazatin questioned the membership of the mayor's brother.
It is an open secret that Lazatin was keen in a mayoral comeback bid to wrest the crown from Nepomuceno. Known as a close ally of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, DILG Sec. Ronaldo Puno, and influential with Palace legal subalterns, his move to have Nepo suspend has gained credence.
Nepo is a protégé of strongman Danding Cojuangco titular head of the Nationalist People's Coalition allied with Lakas-Kampi.
Residents are watching if Malacañang will step into the battle between old enemies and uphold the movant's plan as the case may be.
The Philippine National Police, meantime, wants to defuse the shaping scandal arising from jueteng with STL as cover and front. While jueteng, as an underground industry, fuels economic activities smoothly and quietly in many areas of the country, PNP officials are having a headache with the strife-laden, conflict-driven, and politically-motivated jueteng quarrel in Angeles City.
Angeles residents also challenged Senator Lito Lapid, Senate games and amusement committee chairman to conduct an investigation on suspect PCSO-collusion and possible participation in the anomalous STL collections/management lapses in Angeles.
Mark Sison blames the criminal under-reporting of the actual bet collections by the STL franchise in the city, which the City Council has since declared illegal.
Angeleno now wonders "if the McDonald, Jollibee, or KFC which hold national franchise status had to secure permits to operate these branches, why should the STL, even under the PCSO, be exempted from operating without a local Business Permit in a city?
Caught in the middle of the jueteng war is the city mayor's own police chief.
Senior Superintendent George R. Gaddi has to decide quickly and positively if he wishes to keep his position as Police Director of Angeles City.
I have received reports that the PNP top brass had hurled an unexpressed threat to pull out Gaddi for perceived inability to stop jueteng in the city. Will Blueboy let him go or fight for his retention? Nepo supporters asked.
My sympathy goes with this friend, a dedicated and disciplined police officer who is now caught in the vicious maelstrom of contending forces that want to dominate the P2 million-rich jueteng/STL daily collection in Central Luzon's premier city.
The dreaded "one strike policy" of the PNP hangs over him like the sword of Damocles. He has no recourse but to conduct honest-to-goodness apprehension of all known jueteng collectors, especially those hiding under the STL cover.
My surmise is that our friend George has been virtually put in the pressure cooker which is fired by three burners figuratively: STL operators without business permit; suspect jueteng petty lord Margo, and a new player in the field dubbed "Angeles."
In years past when jueteng was at its record height in Angeles, the game operator regularly netted between P2 million to P3 million daily, the estimate money bet collections on three draws without bookies on the sly. I heard whoever was the chief city executive enjoyed a modest Pl million weekly honorarium Take it or leave it.
