What TRO?

THE declaration of war on illegal gambling by the Duterte administration is both timely as it is long overdue.

It is timely because the present dispensation has since created a momentum by its proven determination to pursue its mission to its end when it declared the war on drugs. No other administration in the past has declared a national campaign against illegal gambling that has long corrupted governance and abetted poverty.

Illegal gambling in Pangasinan, as in many other provinces, has taken deeper roots when local governments conspired to justify the legal operations of the jai-alai off-fronton betting stations in all towns and cities.  It was a syndicated arrangement that made “everyone happy”, including the police, after all it was the best ploy among mayors and the provincial government to protect the illegal numbers game that engendered corruption in all levels.

But a close look at the legal protection invoked by the mayors, the main protectors of ‘jai-teng’ by issuing the business permits, tells us there is no basis at all. What was being invoked was the 60-day temporary restraining order issued by the Court of Appeals (CA) in July 2011 that has since lapsed!  In fact, when the Games and Amusement Board ordered the crackdown on the off-fronton operations since no permits were issued for these after the lapse of the 60-ay period, the CA eventually upheld GAB.

The position, therefore, being taken by the regional police that a court order’s TRO prevents it from stopping the off-fronton operations is, therefore, suspect. In fact, there is a standing order since 2011 from both the DOJ (Dept. of Justice) and the DILG (Dept. of Interior and Local Government) to arrest the operators and bookies.

Crying time

FIRST to cry in the Senate was Bato, the country’s top cop.  Next was the wife of the murdered Korean, whose ashes were flushed heartlessly down by his killers purportedly in an Angeles City toilet.

Then there was Argosino, the alleged bribe-taking Immigration deputy commissioner amid the Jack Lam casino scam. The latest to cry was Lascanas, the retired police officer from Davao City.  In October, Lascanas accused Matobato of lying when Matobato testified in the Senate about the existence of the Davao Death Squad (DDS).

But last week, Lascanas made a 360-degree turn, saying he lied in October. In a press conference, Lascanas, citing his conscience bothered him, said that the DDS existed when President Duterte was still Davao City mayor.  He said his tears relieved him of his guilt as a DDS killer, admitting he even killed his own two brothers.  If you can believe that, then you can also believe that Marcos is a hero.

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