When President Duterte launched his war on illegal drugs, criminality and corruption, I distinctly recall that he said he would also go after those involved in the illegal numbers game.
Jueteng is one of these numbers games. It is a carryover from pre-Spanish times, when Chinese traders came here to trade with us. It became popular in Luzon, and even in Visayas and Mindanao under the name of masiao.
The game is illegal because the gambling lords who profit from it do not pay taxes. It continues to exist in central Luzon, Tagalog provinces, Bicol peninsula and even in Ilocandia.
The reason it exists is that 30 percent to 40 percent of the profits also goes to local government units, police and barangay included.
Santa Banana, it goes all the way up to Camp Crame and Camp Aguinaldo, and sometimes to parishes!
My gulay, gambling lords even get elected to government positions!
Strangely, the Duterte administration’s campaign against illegal gambling never came to pass. I wonder why.
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According to officials of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, the government struck hard against jueteng with the expanded and aggressive conduct of Small Town Lottery. It had revenues of P18 billion in 2017.
What PCSO officials are not saying is that the STL has also been dominated by gambling lords.
Amid all this, now comes the power struggle with Atong Ang and Sandra Cam in tandem against the PCSO. This erupted in the wake of Cam’s appointment as PCSO director and her exposé of the P10-million Christmas party at a posh hotel. The agency’s general manager denied this—the party only cost P6 million, he said.
So-called “Concerned PCSO Employees” came out with full-page advertisements saying they deserved the P6-million party. They lambasted Cam’s exposé. But who paid for those ads?
I am not taking the side of Cam. Far from it—I believe she has her own agenda.
Still, I think Congress needs to investigate this whole matter.
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If it is true that at least 10 associate justices of the Supreme Court are testifying against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, then there would be more than enough proof to establish probable cause against her and the impeachment case will be transmitted to the Senate.
The 1987 Constitution lists the grounds for impeachment—betrayal of public trust, treason, culpable violation of the Constitution, bribery and other high crimes.
The most damning testimony came from former Solicitor General and now Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza, who said that Sereno made public a confidential document on the Philippine case versus China on territorial claims. Jardeleza said this was treason.
Since it’s a foregone conclusion that Sereno would be impeached and would be tried by the Senate, she still has the option to resign or retire.
A chief justice must have moral rectitude demanded of her position.
She has lost this.
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The reported compromise between the Duterte administration and the Marcoses over the wealth of the late President Ferdinand Marcos raises a lot of questions.
I wonder—why did Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo accept the proposal of Oliver Lozano when the latter was not even representing the Marcoses?
At the rate the alleged deal is getting adverse reactions from many sectors, it may as well be headed to the garbage bin.
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The Commission on Audit has commissioners appointed by former President Benigno Aquino III. Their silence over the Dengvaxia deal is deafening.
In yesterday’s column I wrote about the observation of a retired commissioner that the use of savings by ex-Budget Secretary Florencio Abad was legally infirm. The retired official said such use of savings is not authorized by the General Appropriations Act. The Constitution mandates that savings should revert to the unappropriated surplus of the General Fund.
So why are incumbent CoA officials not saying anything on the controversial purchase of the anti-dengue vaccines?
I think they better speak up—or else we would think they do not want to touch the former president, his former Health secretary Janette Garin, and Abad.