Legalize jueteng?

Filipinos love playing games. Nothing wrong with it if the games are generally wholesome source of libangan (amusement or entertainment) to ease the drudgery and weariness of day to day toil especially in the countryside where there are no other forms of entertainment available. But as in any kind of human activity, the games our folks play sometimes have some harmful consequences which they may be unaware of. Like playing games dependent on luck or involving risks the results of which are not planned, intended or known in advance and where money or other items of value are at stake.These games of chance, known as gambling have been found to be seriously destructive and extensively damaging to the moral and material well being of society. Reason enough for our Revised Penal Code (RPC) to categorize them as crimes against public morals and to penalize both the person/s taking part in gambling and the maintainer/s of the gambling den, as well as the conductor/s and banker/s of the gambling game.

On June 11, 1978, the RPC was amended by PD 1602 by simplifying and providing stiffer penalties. Under said PD, the game or scheme penalized are those which do not have a franchise from the national government whether it is upon chance or skill, as long as wagers of money or valuable objects are made. The PD enlarges the lists of games considered as gambling enumerated in the RPC. It also penalizes the officials of the barangays where the gambling houses are reputedly located and gives a reward of twenty percent of the gambling money confiscated, to any informer instrumental in the arrest and final conviction of the offender. In both the RPC and the PD amending it, jueteng is listed as an illegal gambling game and correspondingly penalized as a crime against public morals.

The reason for being of the law still exists and has not changed. The adverse effects of gambling, including jueteng, on the people and the community are still there. Jueteng operates almost exclusively in Luzon where an estimated 80 percen of the local officials owe their election to the gambling operators according to Miriam Grace Go of Newsbreak in her article entitled "Deeper". The study conducted by the Ateneo Center for Community Service, observed that jueteng fosters the culture of dependence as ordinary members of the community, mostly poor families found the "short term, dole out, welfare oriented solutions to their day to day needs... a most attractive solution that lulls them into a passive and dependent relationship with their leader and patron". And even if the poor want to rise above this cycle, they remain trapped in it because "the patron will try forever to maintain it" (Angelita Gregorio Medel). While the Church does not consider gambling as intrinsically evil, "they become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others. The passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement" (Cardinal Sin, March 25, 2002 Pastoral Letter citing Catholic Catechism 2413). Archbishop Oscar Cruz, whose diocese is in the heart of jueteng country strongly condemns jueteng because "the addiction it causes drives families to waste the little money they earn and promotes easy money over hard work. The immorality of jueteng consists in the many crimes it breeds, in the many families it hurts, in the many communities it damages".

But in the coming presidential elections, at least one candidate has come out with a platform declaring that jueteng is not a crime against public morals and should therefore be legalized. The reasons given for the legalization clearly betray purely materialistic motives that abet, rather than abate, the growth of jueteng nationwide. The monetary benefits to be derived by the government through sharing in the "take" of jueteng lords and the alleged protection given to the people against rigged results are not enough justification to legalize this social scourge. Government regulation of the game just transfers the source of corruption from the police to another government agency ending in a status quo of rampant rigged results by the same jueteng lords who will corrupt their way in getting franchises. While it is true that jueteng legalization will enable the police to concentrate on the more serious drug menace, the police can also do that without legalizing it. The local officials can help a lot. The law itself penalizes barangay officials in whose jurisdiction jueteng is conducted, clearly recognizing the fact that jueteng will not thrive without their consent and cooperation.

Legalizing jueteng completely ignores man’s ultimate destiny that transcends earthly existence. It only offers temporal palliatives that pave the road to perdition. It is an abject admission of failure, or ineptness and corruption in law enforcement. Let us remember the presidential candidate/s who advocate it to remind us not to vote for any of them this coming elections.

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