i Report Issue No. 3 2005 - Philippine Center for Investigative ...
i Report Issue No. 3 2005 - Philippine Center for Investigative ...
i Report Issue No. 3 2005 - Philippine Center for Investigative ...
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O V E R V I E W<br />
Sur, Camarines <strong>No</strong>rte, Albay, and<br />
parts of Metro Manila, a lucrative<br />
territory that Pineda reportedly<br />
shares with his <strong>for</strong>mer boss and<br />
mentor, the now aging jueteng<br />
lord Tony Santos.<br />
<strong>No</strong> one else in the history of<br />
jueteng in the country has been<br />
able to expand and consolidate<br />
illegal gambling operations as<br />
Pineda supposedly has. He is a<br />
jueteng franchisee, the Jollibee<br />
of jueteng according to Sombero,<br />
who was also vice president of<br />
the gambling firm BW Resources<br />
during the Estrada period. There<br />
are maybe half a dozen jueteng<br />
franchise operators in the country.<br />
These are the entrepreneurs<br />
and financiers who link up with<br />
a local jueteng operator, paying<br />
<strong>for</strong> the costs of protection to<br />
provincial, regional and national<br />
government and police officials,<br />
thereby allowing local gambling<br />
networks to operate free from<br />
official harassment.<br />
Sombero says local operators<br />
pay a one-time franchise fee of<br />
about P500,000 to P1 million<br />
each, and also shoulder the<br />
payoffs to the winning bettors.<br />
In a fairly large province, total<br />
bet collections would amount to<br />
about P5 million a day or P150<br />
million a month. By Sombero’s<br />
calculations, which jibe with<br />
testimonies made by several<br />
witnesses in the Senate investigation<br />
on jueteng, the national<br />
operator or franchise holder<br />
shoulders the following:<br />
• the salaries of cabos (average<br />
15 per town) and cobradores<br />
(15 per cabo) - 12<br />
percent of total collections<br />
or about P18 million monthly<br />
(in a province with 30 towns,<br />
this is about P2,500 monthly<br />
per person);<br />
• the payoffs to local officials<br />
- eight percent or about P12<br />
million monthly, including<br />
payments to the mayor,<br />
vice mayor, and sometimes<br />
councilors as well as chief<br />
of police; also includes contributions<br />
to the church and<br />
other charities as well as<br />
bribes to local media; and<br />
• the payoffs to higher-level<br />
officials and the media—10<br />
percent or about P15 million<br />
a month, including<br />
the governor (P1 million<br />
to 3 million), congressman<br />
(P1 million or less), board<br />
members, the head of the<br />
PNP regional (P1.5 million)<br />
and provincial commands<br />
(P2 million), the CIDG in the<br />
region and in the province<br />
and CIDG headquarters.<br />
The national franchise holder<br />
nets about five percent of the<br />
total collections, about P7.5 million<br />
monthly per province, and<br />
it is from these that payoffs to<br />
presidential relatives are made, if<br />
needed. But he could earn more<br />
if, like Pineda, he finances the local<br />
operations himself. The local<br />
operator, according to Sombero,<br />
gets 65 percent of the total collections,<br />
but has to pay the winners<br />
from this amount as well as<br />
personnel and other expenses,<br />
which could add up to about<br />
five percent of the collections.<br />
Local operators are dispersed; one<br />
working in just one town like Senate<br />
witness Wilfredo ‘Boy’ Mayor<br />
who operated in Daraga, Albay,<br />
would net P100,000 to P300,000<br />
a month. Someone who operates<br />
in an entire congressional district<br />
or province could net P1 million<br />
to P2 million monthly. The operators<br />
earn more if they cheat the<br />
winners and rig the bola, or the<br />
raffle where the winning numbers<br />
are picked.<br />
BULGING CASH COW<br />
In other words, jueteng is as<br />
big a cash cow as they come.<br />
And since the Estrada era, officials<br />
have wizened up to how<br />
much they can actually squeeze<br />
from gambling operators. Ten<br />
years ago, according to Mayor,<br />
the payoff to a congressman<br />
was only P25,000 a month; to a<br />
governor, just P100,000. Today<br />
Mayor says a governor would<br />
ask <strong>for</strong> at least P1 million. The<br />
amounts of bribes vary, though,<br />
and some officials do refuse to<br />
accept jueteng payoffs.<br />
But the trend throughout<br />
the country is that of ballooning<br />
payoffs. The increased demand<br />
is driven by the fact that<br />
elections—and the day-to-day<br />
doleouts that are required of<br />
patronage politics—are now<br />
more expensive. Because government<br />
finances are tight, there<br />
are fewer opportunities to make<br />
money out of public works and<br />
other contracts. The private sector,<br />
too, is feeling the pinch, and<br />
there<strong>for</strong>e not inclined to top up<br />
political contributions. At the<br />
same time, the demands <strong>for</strong> patronage<br />
are rising, as constricting<br />
economic opportunities leave<br />
more and more voters with few<br />
options left except relying on the<br />
tender mercies of politicians.<br />
For all these reasons, including<br />
the fact that politicians<br />
now have a clearer idea of how<br />
much gambling operators make,<br />
jueteng has emerged as a stable<br />
source of political funding at the<br />
local level, on top of traditional<br />
sources like Chinese-Filipino<br />
businessmen and government<br />
contractors. There is also now an<br />
evident phenomenon of jueteng<br />
operators running <strong>for</strong> local office.<br />
Apart from Pineda’s son (and<br />
the president’s godson) Dennis,<br />
who is now mayor of Lubao,<br />
there’s Armand Sanchez, who<br />
was elected Batangas governor<br />
in 2004. Liberal Party officials say<br />
that Arroyo herself interceded<br />
with the LP to adopt Sanchez a<br />
few months be<strong>for</strong>e the elections,<br />
so he could contest the governorship<br />
as a member of the party.<br />
At the national level, jueteng<br />
funds were supposedly mobilized<br />
<strong>for</strong> at least one particularly<br />
favored senatorial candidate in<br />
2004. And if the testimonies of the<br />
likes of Zuce are to be believed,<br />
jueteng funds were also used <strong>for</strong><br />
“special operations” linked to<br />
Arroyo’s 2004 presidential campaign.<br />
As a source of campaign<br />
contributions, however, jueteng<br />
lords are still dwarfed by the<br />
Chinoy tycoons, among them the<br />
likes of Lucio Tan, who supposedly<br />
gave Estrada P1.5 billion in<br />
1998. While Pineda is swimming<br />
in cash, it is unlikely he can<br />
cough up that much even <strong>for</strong> a<br />
favorite president. Capt. Marlon<br />
Mendoza, the ex-security aide<br />
of <strong>for</strong>mer election commissioner<br />
Virgilio Garcillano, alleges that<br />
DEATH BY EXPOSÉ.<br />
Arroyo beams as Estrada’s<br />
vice president at a public<br />
function be<strong>for</strong>e jueteng<br />
brought about his fall.<br />
he heard the official saying that<br />
Pineda had given P300 million to<br />
the Arroyo campaign.<br />
If these charges are true, then<br />
it is clear that the one danger of<br />
accepting that kind of money<br />
is discovery. The expansion of<br />
the Pineda jueteng empire was<br />
achieved by crushing rival operators.<br />
Apparently, these rivals<br />
were only biding their time. “He<br />
(Pineda) edged out everyone<br />
else,” Senator Panfilo Lacson told<br />
reporters in June. “He is the reason<br />
cited by many operators who<br />
have offered to be witnesses in<br />
the (Senate) investigation.”<br />
If this plot sounds familiar, it’s<br />
because we’ve heard and seen this<br />
be<strong>for</strong>e. In 2001, Chavit Singson<br />
revealed all about Erap because<br />
he felt edged out of the gambling<br />
racket. <strong>No</strong>w the small jueteng<br />
operators are ganging up against<br />
Pineda by surfacing witnesses attesting<br />
to the possible involvement<br />
of the president and her kin in the<br />
illegal numbers game.<br />
In 2001, we wrote of Estrada,<br />
“Death by exposé: this is the<br />
danger of treating presidency as<br />
a protection racket.”<br />
For sure, Estrada is suffering<br />
the consequences of his jueteng<br />
misdeeds. But everyone else, including<br />
Pineda and the two dozen<br />
or so jueteng operators who made<br />
Estrada rich, remain in business.<br />
Today is another day, another<br />
presidency. Jueteng is still going<br />
strong, and not only because it is<br />
a lifeline <strong>for</strong> politicians. It persists<br />
because of the failure of state and<br />
society to en<strong>for</strong>ce the law, deliver<br />
services, and provide <strong>for</strong> the needy.<br />
All of us are anak ng jueteng.<br />
PHILIPPINE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM<br />
I REPORT<br />
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