Senate summons ‘who’s who’ in jueteng

Seven governors, a former governor, a town mayor and four police officers have been invited to appear before a Senate inquiry on jueteng set for next week.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel said the following police officials must also appear at the investigation on illegal gambling: Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Arturo Lomibao, Chief Superintendent Rowland Albano, and Senior Superintendents Rodolfo Mendoza and Pat Hernandez.

However, Pimentel said Sen. Lito Lapid, Senate committee on games and amusement chairman, must inhibit himself from the investigation.

"The reason I say this is that you come from Pampanga where jueteng is more pervasive than the E. coli virus, inhabiting the cesspools of the rich and the famous in Makati," he said in a four-page letter to Lapid.

"By not inhibiting yourself, you invite formal motions to move you to do so which are bound to become messy, especially because your son, the governor, is also proposed as a witness to the hearings... That should be more than enough reason for you to inhibit yourself."

Pimentel suggested that the committee hold the hearings from Monday to Saturday or until the committee terminates the sessions.

At least six "witnesses" must be invited to each hearing, he added.

Pimentel said he also wants to invite Bong Pineda of Pampanga, Tony Santos of Marikina City, a certain Ngongo of Pampanga, Charing Magbuhos of Quezon province, and a certain Boy Tangkad.

Other personalities to be invited are Mayor Jess Viceo of Bulacan, Archbishop Oscar Cruz of Pangasinan, Bishop Ramon Villena of Bayombong Nueva Vizcaya, Art Katigbak of Cavite, and Vice Governor Mariano Cristino Joson IV of Nueva Ecija, he added.

Meanwhile, Senior Superintendent Rodolfo "Boogie" Mendoza, thought to be the whistle blower in the jueteng controversies, denied yesterday that he has anything to do with the exposés.

"I’m not the whistle blower and I don’t know why they have been linking me to the jueteng controversy," he told The STAR.

Mendoza, Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management executive officer, also lashed out at Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a former PNP chief, for identifying him as the person who exposed the jueteng controversy.

However, Mendoza, who served as police commander in Pangasinan and Pampanga, has admitted that jueteng thrives in some provinces.

While defending his own record, he said the jueteng exposés were part of an effort to destabilize the Arroyo government. - With Christina Mendez, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Jess Diaz, Ding Cervantes, Mike Frialde