Hagedorn to Cruz: Don’t fall into jueteng lords’ trap

Puerto Princesa City Mayor Edward Hagedorn, head of the National Anti-Jueteng Task Force, yesterday expressed fears that Archbishop Oscar Cruz, the country’s top anti-jueteng crusader, may be unwittingly falling into a trap hatched by the country’s jueteng lords.

"I fully understand the opposition being posed by Archbishop Cruz, but with all due respect, I believe that it is grossly unfair and baseless for him to disparage the revival of Small Town Lottery (STL), a legal, government-run numbers game by equating it with jueteng. Archbishop Cruz  is  falling  into the hands and vicious ingenuity of the jueteng lords," Hagedorn said.

He said jueteng lords will do everything to prevent any attempt to eradicate jueteng and the inflow of billions of pesos amounting to about P10 billion annually into  their bank accounts. Jueteng lords  are devious, evil forces who will conspire, mislead and resort to all forms of dirty tricks to ensure that any government move to eradicate jueteng will fail, he said. "I know from whence I speak of. I was once there. I was a jueteng lord before I was elected mayor of Puerto Princesa City in 1992. And I know all the tricks used to wreck the STL during the time of President Corazon Aquino. Having first-hand knowledge of all these dirty tricks, we can make STL under the PCSO work and succeed now," Hagedorn said.

By providing a legal, fair and government-operated numbers like the STL now, the Anti-Jueteng Task Force and all the mayors in the six jueteng-infested regions can jointly prevent any attempt to wreck the STL of the PCSO or any other government-sanctioned numbers game from being sabotaged by jueteng lords," Hagedorn said. He said by addressing the jueteng menace which has subjected  the Philippines to humiliation before the global community by having caused the ouster of one president and creating a serious political crisis to the current administration. Hagedorn appealed to  Cruz to fully distinguish Small Town Lottery and jueteng, between legal and illegal gambling.