Lina to adopt reward scheme in fight vs jueteng

Interior Secretary Joey Lina is set to adopt the reward scheme of the National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO) to curb "jueteng" operations in the country within a year.

This developed as police intelligence operatives from the NCRPO, armed with video cameras and other sophisticated equipment, were sent out over the weekend to go after active and retired police and civilian "tong" collectors.

Upon his return from abroad, Lina called up acting NCRPO director Chief Superintendent Rowland Albano to congratulate him in the successful implementation of his reward scheme and made known his intention to adopt it in other areas of the country.

"You’re doing a fine job at the NCRPO. I intend to adopt your pet project, the reward system," Albano quoted Lina as saying.

Since Albano launched the reward system last Wednesday, a male informant became P10,000 richer for tipping off the police about the location of a "jueteng" draw in Quezon City which resulted in the arrest of 16 jueteng personnel and bettors. According to Albano, his office received at least 34 tips since the program began but verification showed that majority of the areas reported were mere collection sites for "jueteng" bets.

"A large number of reports we received turned out not to be locations of "jueteng" draws but areas where bets are being collected so we decided not to raid the places," said Albano insisting that the scheme is meant to cripple the gambling lords’ operations.

Apparently feeling the heat of Albano’s efforts to implement Lina’s "no jueteng, no take" policy in Metro Manila, the five police district directors are ordering daily raids against illegal gambling activities in their areas of jurisdiction.

Albano resorted to the reward system after he noticed that the five police districts were notching a low success rate in their raids against "jueteng." For the period May 11 to 21 alone, the five police districts only accounted for 99 people arrested, majority of whom were noted to be "pre-arranged" or "hingi-huli."

In the said period, the Western Police District (WPD) under Chief Superintendent Nick Pasinos showed zero results despite the continued operations of gambling lords identified as Eric Ang, Milo Samson, Boy Abang, Andoy de la Cruz and Eddie Caro.

Meanwhile, in a bid to dismantle the unholy alliance between gambling lords and "tong" collectors, Albano dispatched intelligence operatives to catch them in the act.

Albano blamed the close cooperation among gambling lords and "tong" collectors for the low success rate of the police campaign against "jueteng."