Ecija vice gov not a jueteng lord, says police official

CABANATUAN CITY — Nueva Ecija Vice Gov. Mariano Cristino Joson is not a jueteng lord and there is no hard evidence linking him to the illegal numbers game, a ranking police official said.

Superintendent Roel Obusan, intelligence and investigation chief of the Nueva Ecija police, said that while Joson, a younger brother of Gov. Tomas Joson III, is being summoned to a Senate inquiry on jueteng, there is no solid proof available to prove that he was, indeed, involved in it.

"There is just no proof that would link or incriminate him. Sa lahat naman ng mga nahuli namin sa operasyon namin sa jueteng, wala man lang ni isa na bumanggit ng pangalan niya (Of all those we have arrested in our operations against jueteng, there was not even one who had dropped his name)," he said.

Obusan said the allegations linking the younger Joson border on hearsay since they are not backed by solid evidence.

Mark Palacios, regional chairman of the Citizens’ Foundation for Prevention of Crimes and Injustices, also took up the cudgels for the vice governor, saying he is innocent of the charges and that the burden of proof rests on his accusers.

Palacios said the vice governor was even in the forefront of the fight against all forms of illegal gambling, thus it would be unfair to link him to jueteng.

"The claims of the vice governor’s jueteng links have no leg to stand on, even the police know that," he said.

Earlier, Gov. Joson told The STAR that he was not a jueteng lord and the tag could be directed at his brother who has a balae (in-law) dragged into the controversy.

Despite the so-called "guerrilla-style" operations, Obusan said Nueva Ecija remains jueteng-free based on the certifications issued by the various parishes and police stations.

In fact, he said, there are now verified reports that video karera is now flourishing amid the intensified campaign against jueteng.