Luzon execs deny links to jueteng

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines—The officials linked by retired Lingayen Archbishop Oscar Cruz to jueteng operations in Northern and Central Luzon have denied protecting the operators of the illegal numbers game or receiving protection money from them.

Pampanga Governor
Lilia Pineda, whom Cruz identified as the jueteng operator in Pampanga, said she respected the opinion of Cruz but said that instead of criticizing her, he should join and help her improve the lives and livelihood of her constituents.

Pineda's husband, Rodolfo “Bong” Pineda, “runs STL (Small Town Lottery) now,” said Cruz, chair of the Krusadang Bayan Laban sa Jueteng or the People's Crusade Against Jueteng.

In the 2000 Senate investigation into jueteng operations, Bong Pineda was identified as among the jueteng financiers who allegedly “centralized” payola to then President Joseph Estrada.

Lilia Pineda appeared in Congress in 2000 only to report the whereabouts of her husband.

In a statement written in Filipino, Governor Pineda on Tuesday said STL was the game allowed by law to operate in Pampanga.

Her priority, she said, were health and education services as well as helping and partnering with businesses for job generation to help Kapampangans move away from illegal or legal gambling.

Cruz, in an interview after the Senate hearing, said he was afraid for his safety now that he had made public an initial list of people involved in illegal gambling.

“I don’t know how they will show their dislike or anger,” he said. In the past, he used to get threats through letters.

In Pangasinan, Governor Amado Espino Jr. denied he was running the illegal numbers game in the province.

“That’s a big lie,” Espino said in a telephone interview. “I deny it completely.”

He said he could not have been a jueteng operator because when he was Pangasinan police director in the 1990s, jueteng in Pangasinan stopped for 10 months.

“We have been working so hard here in the province, improving our health and agricultural services and peace and order, among other things, and now we are accused of running jueteng?” he said.

He said it was unfair for Cruz, the former head of the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan in Pangasinan, to accuse him in a Senate committee hearing, especially because he was not there to defend himself.

Espino said he had been consistent in directing the Pangasinan police office “to stop all forms of illegal gambling in the province” since he assumed office in 2004.

Senior Superintendent Rosueto Ricaforte, who took over as Pangasinan police director last week, said that based on their records, the police had conducted raids on suspected illegal gambling dens and arrested jueteng collectors in the province.

Ricaforte also said that as soon as he assumed office, he ordered an intensified operation against illegal gambling.

Bugallon Mayor Rodrigo Orduña, president of the Pangasinan chapter of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines, said Cruz’s accusation against Espino was “serious.”

But he said he did not believe Espino was running the illegal numbers game in the province. “That was a baseless accusation,” Orduña said.

He said jueteng, like other forms of illegal gambling, had existed in his town. But he said he had ordered the police to stop this.

In Baguio City, Mayor Mauricio Domogan was flanked by city and Cordillera police officials on Tuesday when he faced reporters to deny the report linking him to “jueteng.”

“I am not a gambling lord. I am not a gambling coddler... I do not even gamble... I have always been against jueteng. [Archbishop Cruz] should evaluate his statement. He must know it's not fair to accuse anyone [of a crime]. It's so un-Christian,” he said.

When asked, Senior Superintendent Benjamin Sembrano, operations chief of the Cordillera police, said Domogan was not among the officials law enforcers have placed under surveillance for coddling or operating illegal gambling in the Cordillera.

Domogan said he was against proposals to legalize jueteng, noting that the Small Town Lottery was designed to replace the underground game.

The Baguio government, however, has not endorsed applications for STL despite several requests forwarded to the city council, he said.

The city government imposed a no-gambling policy in the 1990s following the July 1990 Luzon earthquake, but it has since reversed its position to accommodate state-owned gaming operations, including the STL and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office's lotto, Domogan said.

“But there is still no STL here,” he said.

Domogan said the city government may review its conditional support for STL, given Cruz's revelations that it has been used to launder money raised through jueteng.

The Baguio police released a list of its accomplishment against illegal gambling, citing the arrest of 16 suspected jueteng employees, five poker players and several suspects caught playing “cara y cruz,” a street coin game.

In Isabela, Governor Faustino Dy III said his brother, Representative Napoleon Dy, “is not in any way involved in jueteng operations.”

The governor said his brother, a former mayor of Alicia town, is one of the franchise holders of the government-run STL in Isabela's third congressional district.

Representative Dy did not answer the Inquirer’s calls and text messages on Tuesday seeking his reaction to Cruz's allegations. In an earlier interview, however, he denied any link to the illegal numbers game.

Retired Philippine National Police Deputy Director General Jefferson Soriano said his brother, Danny, was not involved in jueteng operations in Cagayan.

“[But] I’m not my brother’s keeper. [Danny] can always do what he wants and should answer [the allegations],” said Soriano, a former police director of Cagayan Valley.

“They are dragging my name [into jueteng operations] so their information will have an impact,” he said.

He denied protecting the supposed operations of his brother. “I am willing to undergo a lie detector test under any agency. This is an old issue that I answered when I was still in the [police] service. I have no involvement whatsoever in [jueteng operations],” he said.

Tonette Orejas, Gabriel Cardinoza, Vincent Cebreza, Villamor Visaya, Phil. Daily Inquirer