It’s a P40-billion industry

"You have to understand," DILG Secretary Joey Lina explained, "that stopping jueteng is basic to law enforcement." The DILG chief, a comrade from the First Quarter Storm, sought me out to enlighten me on why he had to take the drastic step of relieving seven top PNP officials because of their failure to curb jueteng

"As a general rule, police officers in areas where jueteng is rampant are also not that effective in fighting other crimes," Joey observed. "Worse, if it is obvious that the police officers are on the take because they end up using their time to protect their illegal sideline than to serve the public."

I raised my misgivings about punishing very senior officers simply on the basis of their supposed failure to curb jueteng. Citing the case of General Edgar Aglipay, I pointed out that he has had to deal with a lot more serious problems in peace and order than jueteng.

Joey acknowledged my concern but said he has to apply the policy equally. Besides, he pointed out, he was only implementing a long standing policy of the PNP in dealing with jueteng that says, two strikes and the officer is out. In fact, the Napolcom was even more liberal, three strikes before the officer gets it.

Joey says he knows what he is up against. Jueteng is, by some estimates, a P40 billion business annually, he says. Officially, the PNP estimates it at just over P10 billion. It is at the root of corruption in the public service in our local communities, Joey explained. Many local officials owe their office to jueteng. It makes them less sensitive to other forms of corruption.

What is more, Joey stresses, jueteng victimizes the poor, depriving them of the little they have for the basics of life. And they are cheated by jueteng lords who do not even bother to conduct honest drawings of the winning numbers. He said his life had been threatened and his family's reputation sullied by jueteng lords who are fighting his reform moves. But he promises not to back down. It was obvious that Joey is one official who has the courage of his convictions.

But fighting jueteng is more than just police work, Joey explains. He is working with local officials and NGOs to generate jobs for those who depend on jueteng for a livelihood. He is also involved in education programs to teach people how to save and use their savings for more productive endeavors. He has no illusions this is one tough uphill climb.

In any case, he promises an unbiased evaluation of the seven police officers' performance in overall police work, not just jueteng, in the process of determining their future assignments. Even now, the scorecards of the sacked police officers in fighting such crimes as kidnapping, carnapping, murder, rape, etc., are being prepared. A lifestyle check is also being done, to see who is living beyond their means. There are reports that some of the officers have bought expensive cars and other property.

Secretary Lina welcomes this new focus of Ate Glo on fighting crime. He is hopeful this will mean fresh resources to help the PNP cope with the mission of maintaining peace and order. We have to look beyond the scalawags in the ranks who will be dismissed.

I also suggested that maybe it is time for the PNP to enter the electronic and digital age. Every police station should be connected by computer to a central database. This will help identify criminals on the basis of past records and pending arrest warrants from other jurisdictions.

From what I have seen on television, it seems they have not gone beyond the Remington typewriter era. I wonder if the police investigators still bring their own bond paper and ball pens. We have to give those who will be in the forefront of this new battle a better than even chance of succeeding by giving them the needed resources.

Fair enough, right?

Tourism

I received this e-mail from a reader, – Juan Jose Berenguer Testa, president of Mondial Tours & Travel. Here are portions of that e-mail.

I read with interest your column – "What the Philippines could have been" – 25 June 2002, The Philippine STAR. What concerns me more now is – What the future has and where will we be five years from now? Tourism is the biggest industry in the world and unless we are convinced of this there is no way we can even start to build a successful tourism industry.

What the country needs is a revolutionary approach. Gone are the days of just doing promotion trips, sales blitzes, nice slogans and press releases that are often self-serving. The issue is infrastructure, capacity to attract, service, value for money, political will and vision to a commitment to bring about radical changes in the way we approach this industry.

The Department of Tourism cannot do the job alone. It needs the support of the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of Finance and, in fact, of the whole machinery of government. Mr. Chanco, if you just look at any brochure of the Caribbean Isles you will see the number of high rises and 5-star hotels they have in beautiful and also not so nice beaches. These countries are far less developed than ours and also battered by typhoons and the like, yet today they count on hundreds of cruises from both Europe and the USA.

We only have one, first class, resort hotel in our country, the Mactan Shangri-la. We can choose to go the slow way and continue with a lukewarm approach to take its course. We've developed second and third class resorts that charge an eye and a leg for mediocre service and hope that some day these people decide to upgrade their facilities. In the meantime, we see our neighbours take off with all the tourists from both Asia and Europe.

In less then five years, we will have a huge market to look after, if we do our homework. China will be our best customer if we know how to sell ourselves. Add Japan and Korea and we have a sure market. More than what we can chew. We have thousands of beaches, islands, coves and mountains that can be the dream of any one in our midst. Government property that has been idle for years and will continue to be so because there is no interest, vision or capital to develop it.

We must give the people who've already ventured into this business the chance to upgrade, merge or sell out if they want to avail of financial and tax relief that will be a dream of an offer. But a serious commitment has to be made of going all the way.

I have been in the industry 40 years and how so little do we have to show for. Maybe we all are at fault in one way or another.

More airline flight announcements

Here are a few more of the creative airline flight announcements from Dr. Ernie E.

"Thank you for flying Delta Business Express. We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride."

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Weather at our destination is 50 degrees with some broken clouds, but we’ll try to have them fixed before we arrive. Thank you, and remember, nobody loves you, or your money, more than Southwest Airlines."

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And from the pilot during his welcome message: "Delta Airlines is pleased to have some of the best flight attendants in the industry. Unfortunately, none of them are on this flight!"

(Boo Chanco's e-mail address is [email protected])