JUETENG STILL RAMPANT

SHORTLY after media-payola was exposed in local media, a jueteng den in barangay Poblacion Oestein Dagupan was raided twice by operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) on March 2 and 3.

Undetermined amounts of cash and jueteng paraphernalia were seized in the raids believed   to have been timed with the recent assumption of Chief Superintendent Romeo Hilomen as Region 1 police director, replacing Chief Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil.

The raids on the jueteng den, said to be maintained supposedly by a certain “Boy Bata”, served to confirm the continued operation of the illegal numbers game in the city and in many other parts of the Ilocos Region.

Observers told The PUNCH that the raids being conducted in the region are not being conducted to stop jueteng in the city but more to send the “message” to local financiers that there is a “new” management in the regional PNP hierarchy that the operators have to deal with henceforth.

Reports reaching The PUNCH indicated that the jueteng den that reportedly surfaced in Barangay Bacayao Sur the next day has been left untouched since by authorities.

Meanwhile, Hilomen has yet to spell out his policy towards jueteng.

The confirmed presence of jueteng operations in the city and in the province also served to confirm that jueteng financiers have been paying out  “payola” to protectors that include local police officials and media practitioners.

Last week, The PUNCH reported the presence of a “white paper” purportedly listing regular recipients of payola among the media practitioners.

The list, ostensibly named reporters and editors of newspapers and radio stations that have been preempted not to report on jueteng.

The “white paper” is suspected to be have been crafted by a group that wants to act as “bagmen” to serve as a basis for computing amount of regular payola. 

Meanwhile, the members of  the Pangasinan PNP Press Corps have flatly denied their involvement in jueteng media-yola and dared their accusers to come out and present solid evidence against them—LM

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