No Expedition gift from ‘jueteng lord’

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – Finally breaking his silence, Gov. Victor Agbayani denied yesterday having received a Ford Expedition as a gift from an alleged jueteng lord, as reports claimed, in exchange for the revival of the illegal numbers game in the province.

"That’s not true. That vehicle was purchased by my father (former governor Aguedo Agbayani) and we encouraged him to purchase it to get him out of retirement. But it did not really work much as he was not inclined to go around anymore," he said.

In his state of the province address, Agbayani also belied reports that jueteng exists on an "organized operational level" in the province, and that alleged jueteng lord Bong Pineda has taken over operations of the illegal numbers game.

"Actually we have tried our best here and we have stopped the setting up of an organized level (of jueteng)," Agbayani said

He said that such a situation would mean that jueteng operators have the go-signal of provincial authorities.

‘Guerrilla operations’

"That means it’s already vulgar but they have not been able to put up that here. If there is still jueteng, that is because these are guerrilla operations," he said.

Agbayani said the police, though undermanned, have other crimes to attend to like cattle-rustling, petty crimes, possible kidnappings for ransom, terrorism threats and the drug menace.

"So I think we also have to give them a break. (Illegal) drugs have a greater effect, and so with robberies," he said.

Local officials, for their part, have great responsibilities to fight poverty and work for developments in their respective communities, he said.

"Let us see the whole picture. Jueteng is only one of the many concerns that we should focus on. I’m not saying that we should forget about it," he said.

Agbayani said he has a standing order to the police not to rest in their fight against jueteng.

While some mayors admit that they need jueteng money for their social obligations like solicitations for weddings, baptisms and funerals, Agbayani said, "Well, you talk to them about that. I can’t speak for them. This is a complex problem. It is rooted in poverty."

Fighting poverty

"What we are doing in Pangasinan is we are focusing on fighting poverty because we believe that when poverty is defeated, this problem is also defeated and then take a look at the national context," he said.

He added: "Why is gambling for the rich legal while for the poor it’s illegal? Do we have a consistent policy? So you see this is a very complex problem."

Agbayani said he is joining Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz in his unrelenting crusade against jueteng in Pangasinan.

He revealed that Cruz consults him whenever the archdiocese releases findings of surveys on jueteng operations in the different municipalities.

Meanwhile, Senior Superintendent Arturo Cacdac Jr., provincial police director, said he is ready to be quizzed by the provincial board next Friday about jueteng operations in Pangasinan.

Cacdac said he immediately prepared a report and furnished a copy to each of the board members as soon as he learned that the board would invite him to attend its session.