Vidal, Tom oppose govt's ala-jueteng Bingo Combo

Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal have expressed his strong opposition against bingo-combo, a legalized version of jueteng to be introduced by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, as claimed by Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz.

Vidal in an interview yesterday said the Catholic Church is against all forms of gambling and has already issued a pastoral letter bearing its stand on any sorts of gambling in the province.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña has also expressed his objection to the new game. "The first reason why I don't like it is because it corrupts policemen, government officials, and barangay officials. Once they become corrupted in one thing, they'll be corrupted in many things," Osmeña said. He also stressed legalization of any forms of gambling affects the children who are easily influenced as well as give a bad impression to the investors.

Nevertheless, he said the introduction of Bingo Combo does not affect the Cebuanos because it is non-existent here unlike in Manila where its operation is widespread

Bingo-combo, as described by Cruz, is very much similar to jueteng.

While jueteng uses numbers one to 37, bingo-combo uses the numbers one to 38. He said an operator or the mayor could run the game. "But it's still the same. Bingo-combo would still get money out of the poor, which would be handed over to the government, most especially the mayors," Cruz said.

President Arroyo issued September 15 as the new deadline to completely stop the illegal numbers game after receiving reports from anti-jueteng task force chair and Puerto Princesa City Mayor Edward Hagedorn that jueteng operations have allegedly returned in some parts of the country. - Cristina C. Birondo and Jasmin R. Uy