Stop jueteng at the root

HERE we go again with jueteng.

The grand claim of our new provincial police director, Senior Superintendent Rosueto Ricaforte, that the illegal numbers game is now at “zero” level in Pangasinan is, well, grand but not exactly reassuring.

At best, it appears to be a knee-jerk response to the recent resurgence of jueteng in the media headlines mainly because retired Dagupan-Lingayen Archbishop Oscar Cruz, founding chair of the Krusada ng Bayan Laban sa Sugal, has once again become vocal about the issue.

Perhaps it is true that betting has ceased for the meantime, but that would only be because the kubradors are laying low. Why wouldn’t they when the police are on to them. But this is nothing but a superficial way of dealing with the problem.

Jueteng does not continue to proliferate — whether through “normal” or “guerrilla” operations — simply because there are kubradors who make a living out of collecting bets and there are people who continue to make the bets.

The deep root of our jueteng problem is that there are big-time operators behind it who are raking in the most financial benefit and they are paying out considerable amounts of money to the authorities, and that means government officials and the police, to keep them safely in their illegal business.

Jueteng and other illegal number games could only become certainly gone for good if this root is ripped out.

Are our local government officials and police officers ready to truly show that they have nothing to lose by stopping the real source of the problem? Or if they do have payolas to lose, are they ready to finally tread the honest path and be in true service of the public?

Up until then, this cat-and-mouse chase between the police and the kubradors just serve as a shallow sideshow. Once the media heat dies down, we can expect the betting to carry on in its merry way with the poor bettors not really making their life better, the bet collectors simply happy to be making some income, while the operators and the payola takers, the local officials, police chiefs, some media practitioners, bask in their huge windfall.

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