'Jueteng legalization up to Congress'

It's up to Congress to legalize jueteng, Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora said yesterday.

In at least three radio interviews, Zamora admitted meeting with suspected gambling lords last Feb. 25 at the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to discuss jueteng and the planned small-town lotteries (STL).

He said he was asked by PCSO chief Rosario Lopez to attend the meeting and preside over it.

But he said Lopez did not inform him that suspected jueteng lords were also invited.

He added that no agreement came out of the meeting, and that Malacañang was leaving it up to Congress to legalize jueteng.

Zamora was commenting on the disclosure of opposition Rep. Prospero Pichay Jr. (Lakas, Surigao del Sur) the other day that the executive secretary met with

illegal gambling operators last Feb. 25 to discuss the legalization of jueteng.

Also discussed, according to Pichay, was the sharing of jueteng proceeds among several government agencies, including the PCSO, the Philippine National Police (PNP), local government units, and the gambling lords, their supervisors and collectors.

Pichay puts gross jueteng collections at about P300 million to P400 million a month, or between P3.6 billion and P5 billion a year.

Zamora's version of how he ended up presiding over the meeting conflicted with Lopez's testimony on Tuesday before the House good government committee and the games and amusement committee.

The PCSO head said it was her office which planned the conference, and since her agency was under the supervision of the Office of the President, she informed Zamora of the meeting.

"Maybe, he decided to drop by, so we let him preside," she said.

Pichay said the conference "had something to do with the forthcoming elections."

His opposition colleagues were more blunt.

Rep. Federico Sandoval II (Lakas, Navotas-Malabon) said it was held to draw up fund-raising plans for the administration party in preparation for the May 2001 elections.

Rep. Michael Defensor (LP, Quezon City) said Zamora's meeting with gambling lords was a clear signal that Malacañang was bent on legalizing jueteng.

He said illegal gambling continued to be a rich source of funds for those in power, especially during election time.

But President Estrada said nothing has been finalized about the STL, adding that the PCSO was still studying the proposal.

Mr. Estrada said the proposal had been brought up since the term of former President Corazon Aquino.

He said he has heard about this form of gambling ever since he was a town mayor. "This is why the government is studying whether or not jueteng should be legalized," he said.

According to Pichay, besides Zamora and Lopez, those who attended the Feb. 25 meeting were PNP Directors Lucas Managuelod for Southern Tagalog, Cresencio Maralit for the Cordillera region and Enrique Cuadra of Cagayan Valley, and Superintendent Wally Sobrero of the Southern Tagalog command.

The opposition congressman named the suspected jueteng lords present as Bong Pineda of Pampanga, Bonito Singson of Ilocos Sur, whom he identified as a brother of Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis Singson, Romy Lajara of Baguio City and Benguet, Arman Sanchez of Batangas and Laguna, Charing Magbuhos of Laguna and Quezon, and Joe Lazaro, Eddie Carro and Tony Santos, who are all operating in Metro Manila.

Pichay was forced to reveal the names of those who attended the meeting after accusing Lopez of "trying to hide" the identities of those present in the conference.

The PCSO failed to supply any name and could not remember even the date of the meeting, which fell on the anniversary of the EDSA revolution.

The Estrada government has been under fire from the Catholic Church for allegedly tolerating gambling.

The government operates a string of casinos, the only form of legal gambling aside from cockfighting. But the illegal numbers game of jueteng is believed by critics to have undercut the popularity of the state lottery.

Mr. Estrada has openly advocated the legalization of jueteng in which bettors place wagers on two-number combinations, and a bill is pending in Congress to have the betting game legalized.

The President argued the current system encouraged police to accept bribes to look the other way.

"The police officials were invited by the PCSO to a meeting to discuss the possibility of legalizing the illegal numbers game," said PNP chief Director General Panfilo Lacson.

He said the proposal to set up small town lotteries, patterned after jueteng, was "still in its planning stage. There is nothing concrete that came out of the meeting."

He added: "I don't think there is anything illegal in the meeting with PCSO as resource persons."

He said he gave "clearance" for a number of commanders of police operating units to attend the meeting, "since they are the ones with actual experience" on the matter.

Meanwhile, the House good government committee and the committee on games and amusement will no longer invite Zamora to shed light on his controversial meeting with gambling lords.

"We will no longer invite him and the others because the inquiry has been terminated," Rep. Edgar Lara (LAMP, Cagayan) told reporters.

He said the two committees decided to end their joint investigation into the plans of the PCSO to go into small town lotteries after PCSO's Lopez promised the panels that her agency would await congressional decision on a bill seeking to legalize jueteng.

He said with that commitment, there was no more use for the committees to pursue the inquiry.

Asked what happened to a motion presented by Pichay for the committee to invite Zamora, the police officers and jueteng operators present in the Feb. 25 meeting, Lara said, "technically, that can no longer be done."

He said Pichay will have to file a separate resolution seeking a probe into the meeting presided over by Zamora before the executive secretary can be asked to appear before the hearing panels.

The opposition Lakas-NUCD party warned that Malacañang might not only be busy soliciting election funds from gambling operators but also drug lords.

"Next ... we may hear or read reports that they will meet with drug lords," said Lakas spokesman Hernando Perez.

He expressed fears that the meeting between Zamora and the gambling lords "is a fund-raising" activity "for the administration's campaign for the 2001 mid-term elections."

Perez also said that Zamora's excuse that he attended the Feb. 25 meeting to discuss small town lotteries "is flimsy and only indicates where the administration is getting its funds for the elections."

"We fear that billions of pesos of gambling and drug money will pour into the campaign next year. They can fool the people once ... but not at all times," he said.

Meanwhile, Lakas secretary general Rep. Heherson Alvarez (Isabela) said President Estrada should stop the proliferation of gambling if he wants to improve his popularity rating.

He said the Estrada administration has been closely associated with gambling.

"There is a growing conviction that it is embedding gambling as part of the Philippine culture, and that it does not seem to understand that gambling has a deleterious impact on our society," he said. -- With Marichu Villanueva, Liberty Dones, AFP