Here and There
Why jueteng is unstoppable
By Gerry Garcia
EARLY hours of last Friday, Nov. 24, marked the dawning of a great day for Manny Pacman and entourage whose expected arrival from Las Vegas, Nevada at the NAIA stirred the massing of thousands of welcomers exhilarated by his convincing triumph over Mexican Erik “Terrible” Morales in their final return bout on November 19.
The Pacquiao fever which caught legions of boxing afficionado was not sparing of a few politicians among the welcoming crowd, like Mayor Lito Atienza who, according to the grapevine, would like the Bayang Kamao to run in ’07 elections for Vice Mayor in tandem with his son who is aiming for the mayoral position in Manila. Which, the Mayor probably thinks, is above board. Manny, after all, is an adopted Son of Manila.
Some fans of Manny, however, tended to be sober, like Jinky, Manny’s wife, who put her foot down. She does not want her hubby to ruin his future and that of their kids. Why? Because politics is dirty, period.
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Seems the fire in Gonz Duque’s column (Playing With Fire) grazed the mind of an avid Punch reader, Juanito “Ani” Fernandez Lagao, who was all praises for Gonz whom he considers a “fighter na kakampi, at attorney pa”.
Lagao, who is chairman of Partidong Sosyalista at Demokrasya ng Pilipinas, Pangasinan chapter, commends Gonz’s expose’ in unveiling the deteriorating billions peso scam involving the unscrupulous parceling out or selling of juicy portions of Tondaligan lots belonging to the government to unscrupulous buyers, some of whom are “outsiders”.
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After decades of relentless and often hopeless campaign to dismantle jueteng, the poor man’s game, we still haven’t learned a lesson. We’re still chasing rainbows. Late reports say there’s a resurgence of jueteng. We’re afraid, despite denials, official or not, the reports are true.
It seems our countless anti-jueteng drives have not touched bottom yet. Why? The cause of the resurgence of the illegal numbers game is not the jueteng lords or the capitalists. They provide the material cause, the cash that assures the security of the game, the “grease” money or “lagay”.
Jueteng, being the poor man’s game, does not and will never die unless the bettors themselves — the countless masses of the poor— stopped staking P5 or P10 pesos each in the hope of “hitting the jackpot”. We have the gut feeling that jueteng will stop if and when economic development reaches a level of wealth and fairness in distribution acceptable to all.
(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/here-and-there/)
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