Ending jueteng for real?

 

IS P/Sr. Supt. Moro Virgilio Lazo, the new chief of the Region 1 police, for real? We surely hope so.

First week on the job and already he could be credited for the arrest of 23 people in Umingan involved in the illegal operations of that old, old menace jueteng. And if we are to believe his words, it is only the beginning of a campaign wherein he has taken to task the local police chiefs under his wing.

We give Lazo the benefit of the doubt that he is not merely posturing about a serious battle against jueteng. But no matter how determined he is, without everyone else giving him real support, we can’t expect him to succeed where so many others before him have failed.

So we ask, are the police officers in the towns and cities prepared to follow Lazo’s lead — and for those on the take, give up their share of the loot? Are the local government officials ready to fully renounce the jueteng operators whom we know are donating funds to some of them and provide political backing to the police? Can the elected officials come up a livelihood program that will help provide alternative income to the hundreds who are gainfully employed in the jueteng industry? Can the people in the communities finally give up their illusion that gambling is the answer to their financial difficulties?

Jueteng, no matter how deeply rooted it is, can be eradicated. It has been done in other parts of the country. But it takes more than just one police boss to do the job. Then again, it’s a gallant start. It waits to be seen whether Lazo is sincere and determined enough to muster the support he needs from his fellow police officers, the local governments, and the communities.

 

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Reviling Revilla

 

CAN we believe that Sen. Bong Revilla diverted his pork barrel funds to fake organizations linked to alleged scam artist Janet Napoles?  That he did that to collect his loot in the guise of commissions from Napoles, who is now behind bars without bail for allegedly masterminding the P10-billion anomaly?  Even as whistle-blower Benhur Luy seemed to appear credible in implicating Revilla to the crime, still, it is hard to tell.  Always, Revilla has the benefit of the doubt and, until proven guilty, the actor-politician remains innocent.

But then this:  In his obvious anger at Luy’s move to link him to the scam, Revilla went ballistic and accused the Palace of shaming him in public.  He said P-Noy invited him to “Bahay Pangarap” and influenced him to vote to convict Corona in Corona’s impeachment case. We can believe that because P-Noy himself admitted he did invite Revilla, “but only to ask him to vote based on the merits of the case.”  As the records would show, Revilla voted to convict and helped impeach Corona in 2012.

But why only now did Revilla admit to P-Noy inviting him to the Palace?  We say, it was nothing but a ploy to divert the issue:  Did Revilla redirect P500M of his pork barrel funds to bogus NGOs so that he could collect commissions from the transactions? Your guess is as good as ours.

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