Illegal gambling raps to be filed vs Pineda next week — DILG

Charges of illegal gambling are set to be filed next week against suspected gambling lord Rodolfo "Bong" Pineda, Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina Jr. revealed yesterday.

The move is part of the government’s stand against illegal gambling but did not rule out the possibility that Congress may decide to legalize popular numbers games like jueteng.

"We are preparing charges against Bong Pineda and by next week we will file charges against him... There will be no sacred cows," Lina said during the weekly Holiday Inn press forum.

Lina said the case against Pineda is but one of several that are being prepared against big-time gambling lords in the country.

Police have tagged members of the Singson family in Ilocos Sur, the Prietos in the Bicol Region and the Viceos in Bulacan as among those who are to be charged, Lina said.

Authorities are also set to charge two other gambling lords, supposedly from Southern Tagalog, but Lina declined to identify them.
The decision to charge the gambling lords was reiterated during a Philippine National Police (PNP) command conference on Wednesday to map out the government’s plan to eradicate jueteng.

Presidential chief of staff Renato Corona said, however, that Congress may want to decide once and for all if the government should fight the "social problem" of jueteng or legalize the popular betting game.

"Congress needs to act on illegal gambling," Corona said in a radio interview over dzRH.

"They can either pass stronger laws to strengthen anti-illegal gambling or look into whether this (jueteng) can be allowed," he said. "It is a social problem, (especially) in the provinces where people get angry when there is an announcement of a crackdown on jueteng."

In their plan to clamp down on jueteng, the DILG and PNP worked out a scheme to ensure a "no-take" policy in the new anti-illegal gambling drive.

Under the scheme, any jueteng arrest will result in the automatic relief of the chief of police where the arrest was made. If two chiefs of police are relieved due to jueteng, the provincial commander will be sacked. And if a provincial commander is sacked, a regional commander may be removed too.

Already, police have vowed to eliminate jueteng in Southern Tagalog where jueteng has thrived for several decades.

New Southern Tagalog police chief Domingo Reyes, who took over from Chief Superintendent Lucas Managuelod, vowed to immediately stop jueteng operations in the region’s 10 provinces.

Reyes pledged full support for Lina’s "no-take" policy and would soon intensify operations against jueteng operators whose number is reportedly rising. – With reports from Marichu Villanueva, Rene Alviar