Jueteng is the poor man's opiate

Jueteng is a disease. It has permeated our body politic and our society for many years. It is incurable. Jueteng is an opiate of the poor whose minds are hopeless BUT to hit the jueteng jackpot gives the poor a ticket out of misery – even if temporary. Then the cycle continues.

The Filipinos have different views on whether we must keep jueteng or stop it. Being a predominantly Catholic country, any form of gambling is bad. So the government must decide which road to take – the Catholic route or the economic route. Which way should we take?

Jueteng has been with us for a hundred years. Sources tell me, that several decades ago it was just a hometown cottage business with three to five people in a municipality pooling their resources together to operate the number game. It became a regional industry where jueteng lords networked the operation. The jueteng lords became King makers – making and unmaking mayors, governors, representatives, even senators.

The government has tried to come up with different solutions to replace jueteng like the introduction of Lotto but despite this effort, jueteng still exists.

So, how can P-Noy and the rest of his crew challenge Archbishop Cruz to show proofs of his allegations when we all know that jueteng indeed exists? Shouldn’t the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) get into the picture? Isn’t the NBI, “the agency of the Philippine government under the Department of Justice responsible for handling or solving sensational cases that are in the interest of the nation?” Now let’s see how good our NBI really is as they try to unearth the truth of the matter and give us the names of the masterminds of jueteng in the different areas.

Although Archbishop Cruz admitted that he does not have documentary evidence to back up his accusations because there is no proper trail in jueteng (no vouchers, no receipts, no ledgers, etc.), he insists his anti-jueteng group has a network of informers (“deep throats” inside the PNP and the DILG) he considers reliable and credible. However, in a court of law, what Archbishop Cruz alleges may not hold. Congressional inquiries are not meant to establish “probable cause” for prosecution in a court of law. That task belongs to the Department of Justice. Congressional inquiries are meant to gather facts and data for legislation. Previous congressional inquiries on jueteng should have by now produced effective legislation to curb jueteng and other forms of illegal gambling.

The Senate inquiry on jueteng is a replay of the earlier congressional inquiries by both houses on the illegal numbers game. It has displaced the hostage crisis from public attention. Some of the personalities cited in the current inquiry are the same “super stars” already known as prominently involved in illegal gambling.

But though the current Senate inquiry is a re-run of the previous inquiries, it has become a “blockbuster” because of new personalities cited as involved in a so-called “jueteng payola” running to millions of pesos. Among these personalities allegedly involved are the new DILG Secretary and the recently retired PNP Director General Verzosa. There could be some truth after all to what Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago said that a potent combination insuring success for unabated jueteng is - a DILG and PNP tandem.

The new DILG undersecretary has admitted his close and long friendship with P-Noy and his active involvement in his presidential campaign. Thus, the alleged involvement of the DILG undersecretary cannot but collaterally drag P-Noy into the jueteng drama. In fact a major broadsheet ran this headline last week: “Noy aid a ‘jueteng king’”.

P-Noy may have also unnecessarily made remarks, when interviewed in New York that could be accorded unintended meaning. He said: “One thing we have to watch out for is if these people who have been with us when we were still in the harassed opposition and who joined us in our struggles…if all these people who are close to us are removed and replaced by those who are not as close, the next group could already be our enemies.”

Commenting on retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz, P-Noy said: “Archbishop Cruz is a very opinionated person. I think I came out publicly asking him to dialogue if he wanted to and I think he answered that he didn’t want to.” P-Noy added that “I think you will see Archbishop Cruz, although entitled to his opinion, does not think highly of me.”

Perhaps Archbishop Cruz has all the valid reasons not to accept P-Noy’s invitation to talk and just let the government do the investigation.

Be that as it may – with all the sound and fury in the current inquiry on jueteng, it appears there is no focus on the impact and social cost eradicating the illegal numbers game will inflict on the thousands of people who are the “foot soldiers” (kobradores and kabos) and their families in the jueteng industry. The kobrador is not a cheat, but part of a network run by increasingly wealthy and powerful syndicates which corrupt government officials, policemen and even local clerics. The person on top of the network is all bundled up in layers of people. It will be so difficult to identify them. They are the godfathers who have immense financial and political clout in the province or even the region.

The focus is on the big personalities involved and the pernicious effects on society of jueteng and nothing on the unemployable thousands of unlettered people, people dependent on jueteng for their daily three meals and the education of their children and grandchildren. Will these poor people just be collateral damage in the war against jueteng like innocent civilians in war? What has Congress in store for them once effective legislation is passed eradicating jueteng?

Actually, despite the focus and attention on jueteng because of its political component, the real more potent illegal business in this country that has ruined lives and killed people is – illegal drugs. The Philippines has become a major transshipment point of illegal drugs in Southeast Asia, with Filipinos used as “drug mules” in several countries. Does this evil deserve less attention than jueteng?

Until such time when big shot jueteng lords are collared and sent to prison, jueteng will continue to flourish. If P-Noy really wants to crush jueteng he will have to be ruthless and show no mercy, even to his closest friends.

If we are determined to punish crime – it will stop. The law means nothing, if the lawmen don’t enforce it with full force. I think P-Noy should bring back capital punishment to sow fear on every crooked public official and policeman or on those who may be in cahoots with the masterminds of crime.