Anak ng Jueteng!

Copyright © 2009 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved.

After some deliberations and careful study whether we pursue the forum on jueteng and illegal gambling in the Philippines, the author finally proposed to organize it, through the Crisis Management Institute (CMI) by conducting the regular Crisis Management Forum (CMF), entitled, Jueteng and its Impact on National Security last November 11, 2009.

The objective of the forum aims to gather inputs from various agencies and stakeholders to examine and look at the positive and negative effects of jueteng to later on write a comprehensive study on the said topic and to recommend policies about jueteng’s impact on national security.

Lectures, speeches, statistics, and power point presentations complemented the discussions in the said forum.

The presentation of Dr. Castro examined the historical roots of gambling and looked at the cultural context of gambling in the Philippines. He accounted that since 17th century, historian William Scott, documented already the presence of illegal gambling in the country such as cockfighting and betting, two of the popular gamble games, back that period. This was supported by French anthropologist Jean Mallat that illegal gambling had been famous already in the country since 1846. Although, gambling as a form of past-time was widely influenced by the Chinese, and such games like, taypo, dibersyon, cockfighting, billiards, beto-beto, tirimbi, sakla, and jueteng were prevalent that time.

Director Castañeda of the CIDG-PNP, on the other hand, also as a lawyer explained government measures to stop the operation of jueteng, such laws and department orders include, NAPOLCOM Resolution 2006-116, Section 63 of Republic Act 8551, NAPOLCOM Memorandum Circular No. 2002-004, and the creation of Anti-Illegal Gambling Special Operations Task Force (AIG-SOTF); and penalties imposable on jueteng, provided by Presidential Decree 1602 and Republic Act 9287. Hence, he also reported that current legal variable of jueteng is the Small Town Lottery (STL) which is being used for charity fund sharing, where recipients of the charity fund can provide immediate and localized funding assistance for health and development projects in various localities.

Lastly, Mayor Dominador Villena narrated actual experiences on the operation of jueteng and its implication among politicians during elections, which is widespread in Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, Northern Luzon, Metro Manila, Bicol Region, Cagayan Valley, and the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR). He also discussed the operation and mechanics of this illegal numbers game, where it involves the combination of 37 numbers against 37 numbers, however, in some areas operators use 38 numbers. There are 1,396 for 37 numbers and 1,444 for 38 numbers and the draw is witnessed by all cabos or jueteng supervisors.
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The half-day forum on jueteng and its implication on national security gives refreshing perspective among the participants and panelists as well, since all of the speakers, unanimously admit the need to legalize jueteng since it encompasses cultural, political, psycho-spiritual, and economic dimensions in the day-to-day lives of the bettors and the betting operators, despite ipso facto massive opposition from the Catholic church. Hence, it was found out that it is not uncommon for gambling lords to be church donors or involved in humanitarian projects since they believe in balato as a concept of reciprocity. Both parties in a reciprocal relationship benefit from it through utang na loob (debt of gratitude). It is also alleged that gambling lords also fund political campaigns of certain candidates. Thus, they could seek certain favors in return once they win.

As a social effect on national security, the common Filipino psyche on the cycle of life proves that life, in general, is viewed as a never-ending gamble in life. Since there are economic, political, and social uncertainties in each Filipino lives, every decision made is a bet. Eventually, one may either win or lose.