MANILA, Philippines — Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde yesterday warned police commanders to shape up and prevent the proliferation of jueteng and other illegal numbers games in their areas or face relief.
“Remember, we have a standing directive called the one-strike policy,” he told reporters in an interview. This means that if jueteng continues to flourish in a district or municipality, the police commander immediately responsible for that area is liable and will face sanctions.
President Duterte ordered a stop to all gaming activities of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) last Friday night, as they are allegedly being used as fronts for illegal numbers game operators.
Albayalde gave the warning after the President issued the directive. They have not monitored any police officer involved in jueteng activities since they implemented Duterte’s orders last Friday, where at least 30,284 gaming outlets were closed.
The PNP chief clarified that they don’t see a resurgence of what he described as “kangaroo” types of gambling, although he earlier said it is possible after the President stopped the gaming activities of PCSO.
“As of this time we have monitored that there has been no resurgence,” he said.
Albayalde earlier said they received intelligence information that jueteng is still being played in two provinces in Central Luzon following the closure of lotto, small town lottery (STL) and other legal gaming outlets.
Maj. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) director, urged the public to report areas where illegal gambling remains rampant.
“As of now, what we need is information. If the public could provide us information through our hotlines, then we’ll conduct an operation,” he said.
Since President Duterte’s order, Eleazar said he received several text messages regarding the continued bet collections of STLs in Quezon City, prompting him to order an operation resulting in the arrest of five bet collectors.
Among those caught were Marcelo Flores, president of the Great Platinum Gaming Online Inc., and Guillermo Teppang, maintainer/operator. Both were charged with illegal gambling before the Quezon City prosecutor’s office.
“All of the information we receive from the public, we immediately launch an operation. But it was only in Quezon City where our operation produced positive results,” said Eleazar, noting that Flores was an alleged “dummy” of bigtime jueteng operator Ramon Preza.
Eleazar admitted that they find it hard to conduct campaigns against reported jueteng operations in the past because of STLs.
“We have been conducting campaigns against the reported jueteng operations in the past, but each time we make arrests, those arrested produce their identification card showing they are working for the STL,” said Eleazar. “So we have no recourse but to release them.”
With the closure of STL operations, Eleazar noted that it would be easier now to conduct operations against jueteng in Metro Manila since bet collectors won’t have an excuse for their actions anymore.
Top city officials have also followed the President’s order – with one exception.
In Manila, Mayor Isko Moreno has ordered the city’s business licensing office to withdraw the business licenses and mayor’s permits for all PCSO licensees, agents and franchises in the city following Duterte’s directive.
However, Makati Mayor Abby Binay does not see any legal basis to cancel or revoke the business permits of all lotto outlets in the city, a few days after operations of the PCSO were suspended.
Binay told reporters that the Makati City police have already closed down all 42 lotto outlets in the city, but said that she could not yet revoke their permits as they have not committed any violations as far as their operations in the city are concerned.
Binay stressed that they respect the presidential directive, but emphasized that they can revoke business permits of lotto outlets in the city only if the PCSO orders them to do so.
“We respect the directive of the President, but we don’t have a legal basis to revoke their permit unless PCSO will present the contract. Then PCSO writes to us, the city, that all the lotto outlets will be closed. That’s the only time we’ll be able to revoke legally the license,” Binay continued.
In the meantime, she said that what they can do now is to wait until the decision of Duterte changes as far as lotto operations are concerned.
The NCRPO said that they have closed down 2,211 lotto outlets in Metro Manila. – With Non Alquitran, Robertzon Ramirez