This was what City Mayor Carmelo Lazatin has formally asked the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to do, saying it should employ the thousands of displaced jueteng bet collectors in the country to operate its legal two-number game called "Easy 2."
In a letter to PCSO chairman Sergio Valencia, Lazatin cited about 1,500 "cobradors," or bet collectors, most of them heads of families displaced in this city alone since the May 4 police crackdown on the illegal numbers game.
Reports said that families formerly relying on jueteng for their livelihood were now going hungry.
"With the administration’s intensified campaign against the illegal number game, many of our constituents working as cobradors have lost their financial means to support their families," the mayor noted.
Lazatin, who at one time chaired the House committee on games and amusements, said that employing cobradors to collect bets on the legal numbers game Easy 2 would be "like hitting four birds with one stone."
"Nahinto ang jueteng, nabigyan ng hanapbuhay ang mga kobrador, natulungan ang PCSO at nawala ang corruption (You would stop jueteng, displaced bet collectors are given jobs that would also help the PCSO’s Easy 2, and corruption would be beaten)," Lazatin said.
Easy 2, he said, is very similar to jueteng since clients bet on a pair of numbers. Under Easy 2, bettors can choose any combination of numbers from 1 to 31, while in jueteng the numbers run from 1 to 38.
Lazatin noted that despite Easy 2 being legal, most people prefer jueteng because collectors visit their homes to solicit bets for the game, whereas those betting on Easy 2 must stand in line at PCSO outlets.
"Absorbing jueteng cobradors as Easy 2’s solicitors would result in an increase of PCSO’s two-number game players," Lazatin said.
"Since the success of jueteng has been attributed to the house-to-house or person-to-person solicitations of cobradors, these solicitors can be used by your good office to practice the same strategy in order to promote and augment the number of patrons of Easy 2," Lazatin said in his letter.
"Through this, we can help cobradors start a legal way of living through the strategy they are already familiar with," Lazatin explained.
Easy 2 was implemented during the Estrada administration as a measure to curb jueteng operations by giving the popular illegal numbers game some competition.
Lazatin also told the PCSO chairman that his proposal "will be our means of realizing our support for the total eradication of the illegal game and corruption as well as support of the PCSO’s programs and its beneficiaries."
Nonetheless, Lazatin stressed he supports the government’s drive against jueteng, saying the crackdown on the illegal numbers game is "commendable" and that it "strengthens the administration’s drive against corruption."
Mabalacat Mayor Marino Morales said he supports Lazatin’s proposal. — With Ric Sapnu