‘Jericho’ raids jueteng dens in Baguio

BAGUIO CITY — The Department of the Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) Task Force Jericho swooped down on two jueteng dens here on Sunday and surprised at least 50 jueteng rebisadores.

Manila-based task force members led by Police Chief Inspector Segundino Adaliga raided house #5-F in Barangay Sto. Niño, catching four suspected rebisadores and confiscating bet money amounting to P7,250 and jueteng paraphernalia.

Simultaneously, Jericho members also raided house # 10, also in Barangay Sto. Niño, arresting 46 rebisadores and P26,050 in bet money, jueteng paraphernalia and petty cash vouchers.

Five vans, with license plate nos. ACV881, WKN967, WTZ956, CLJ173 and UBJ792, believed to be used in the illegal gambling operations, were also temporarily impounded at Police Station 5 along Marcos Highway.

The arrested rebisadores, who are all non-Baguio residents, are presently detained at the Baguio City police. They will be charged for violation of Presidential Decree 1602.

The twin raids yielded the biggest haul so far as it arrested the most number of jueteng officials.

The raid belied claims of local officials that this quiet tourist city is already free from the illegal numbers game.

Adaliga said that in the past three months alone they had conducted three successful operations against jueteng.

The rebisadores said draws here are being conducted three times a day in five betting stations spread out all over the city, raking in P1.7 million daily average gross income.

Out of this amount, they said 37 percent goes to the "intelligentsia," which includes public and police officials and some members of the media.

"Akala po namin ay plantsado na ang lahat kasi mismo si mayor po and nag meeting sa amin at isa pang mataas na opisyal ng pulis kaya nga po nagtataka kami kung bakit kami ginalaw (We thought everything was clean because even the mayor and one of the high ranking police officials have met with us. We don’t know why we were arrested)," said a visibly confused rebisador.

He did not specify who the mayor was but rumors tag a certain "Boy Mayor" as the alleged jueteng financier here.