20,000 ‘anak ng jueteng’ can’t enroll this sem

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Some 20,000 school children in the third district of this province might not be able to enroll this semester after the lifeblood of their families’ income was stopped, district Rep. Reynaldo Aquino said yesterday.

Aquino told The STAR that no less than 15,000 families in his district have relied on jueteng for their sole means of livelihood. The third district covers this capital city and the towns of Mexico, Sta. Ana, Bacolor and Arayat.

He estimated that about 30 percent of town residents, particularly those in far-flung barangays, derive their income from jueteng.

With the illegal numbers game already frozen in the towns, most of the families have yet to find alternative sources of income. An official of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Central Luzon, where jueteng used to be widespread before the recent crackdown on it, admitted that her agency lacks funds for this purpose.

"The government, instead of zeroing in only on the controversies on the alleged payoffs implicating members of the family of President Arroyo, should now exert more efforts to provide alternative livelihood or employment to people who have lost their income from jueteng," the DSWD official said.

But Aquino also noted that many of those who used to rely on jueteng for income either lack academic qualifications and skills for other means of employment or livelihood. "This is particularly a difficult situation to be confronted with," he said.

He stressed, however, that "for as long as there are people who cannot find decent jobs or other means of livelihood, jueteng will persist."

Aquino said a growing number of family heads who used to rely on jueteng have been seeking financial assistance from him, not least for tuition of their children. He estimated that some 20,000 youths are likely to drop out of school this semester because their families’ jueteng income has ceased.

Angeles City Mayor Carmelo Lazatin had the same observation, as he estimated that no less than 1,200 families in his city used to rely solely on jueteng for their livelihood.

Lazatin said he has always batted for the legalization of jueteng and the employment of financiers and workers in the legalized system. "We proposed this when I was still in Congress, but it did not gain support," he recalled.

Lazatin said no operational changes should be made in a legalized jueteng, where all its workers will be absorbed and the government keep its profits to a minimum. "Jueteng financiers should be retained to prevent them from continuing with their illegal trade outside of the legalized numbers game," he noted.

"The reason why jueteng has thrived despite a similar game provided by the legal lotto is that bettors do not have to line up to bet as the collectors go to their homes. This scheme should give legal gambling officials a thought," he added.

Earlier, Central Luzon police director Chief Superintendent Alejandro Lapid declared Pampanga, which was recently dubbed by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. as the "Vatican" of the illegal numbers game, and the rest of the region as "totally jueteng-free."

At a press briefing, Philippine National Police deputy director Chief Superintendent Oscar Calderon also stressed the need to provide jueteng-dependent families with alternative sources of income.

"It’s really a complicated problem. We can’t just give them farm animals so they can start raising them, because they reason that their families have to eat in the meantime while waiting for the farm animals to grow and be ready to be sold," Calderon said.

He said that to prevent jueteng workers from shifting to the drug trade, the police anti-illegal drug agencies have remained on alert.

"The help of local officials and even the private sector is very important now. We are asking them to help those displaced by jueteng and provide them with alternative livelihood," he said.