“People must earn from the sweat of their brows, not from illusions of fortune and dreams of easy money“
SUMBUNGEROS are in the news again. Whistleblowers in English.
These days, the sumbungeros are hot on the mysterious disappearance of any from 30 to 108 sabungeros claimed to have been killed and then dumped into the waters of Lake Taal.
Another whistleblower claims to have been “bribed” by Senadora Risa to spew lies about Pastor Apollo Quiboloy’s links to former president Rodrigo Duterte in her Senate hearing last year.
I remember PR nightmares in helping then newly-elected Senator Ping Lacson combat the explosive revelations of Ador Mawanay, a powder white-faced Chinay called Rosebud, which all turned out to be concoctions in aid of planned demolition of one who could have been president.
Most of the sumbungeros have since recanted, including a public apology from a now deceased colonel, but the damage to Lacson’s reputation has been enormous.
A whistleblower exposed the criminal exploits of Janet Napoles who conspired with dozens of legislators to assign their pork barrel entitlements to ghost NGOs, the whole amount divvied up between her and her client-lawmakers more than a decade back.
The estafadora is in jail, the whistleblower in limbo, senatorial staff either in hiding or died in prison, taking the rap for their enormously wealthy principals.
There is one common denominator in all these crimes that sumbungeros honest or not have peddled to the public, made sensational by media in their love of sabong journalism.
It is the love for easy money.
In the 50s, easy money was about winning in the “swipistek,” or so my yaya mispronounced sweepstakes. In the 90s, “lotto” was introduced, supposedly to give jueteng lords a run for their illegal money that likewise greased the palms of government officials, from barangay level all the way to the president even.
Still, jueteng thrives, as it had since the turn of the 19th century, now disguised as STL, still in connivance with government through the notorious PCSO, and abetted by the police, LGU officials and congressmen.
The take is called “intelihensya” by the jueteng lords, not to include hefty campaign contributions each electoral campaign.
For the poor and lower middle class, it is elixir from quotidian misery, even for just a day or two. But for the politicians and the police, it is payola that comes with the entitlements of power.
Gambling is all about easy money, whether it is online or inside the casino, with aspired fortune an addiction to many.
In college days, I bet on the jai-alai, a thrilling game Basques brought to the country.
Likewise pula’t puti in Roxas Boulevard makeshift dens.
Friends and I would visit casinos before PAGCOR came about, losing a little but enjoying the steaks and scotch that went free.
Later I learned how to play poker, but one night I lost half a million in imaginary bets with friends that left me so shocked so I foreswore all forms of gambling since.
A decade or so ago, POGOs became a hit, with hordes of Chinese betting and money flowed like forever, until the stink raised by illegal POGOs highlighted by the Alice Guos and their ilk made legislators and the president abolish a multi-billion “industry.”
But most POGO gamblers are foreigners who can afford to lose big money.
E-sabong and online gaming operators make hay from the meager earnings of the poor and middle class, even young people who are lured by prospects of easy money.
It is motivated either by a belief in luck or an escape from present misery.
Whichever, they turn out to be losers while the wealthy purveyors of gambling amass more fortunes with online communication platforms as accomplices.
No, Mr. President, do not just tax online gambling.
Do not just think of ways and means to regulate it, as your talkative undersecretary told media. Listen instead to Migs Zubiri.
Ban it outright, just as you did POGO. This ban can be the highlight of your fourth State of the Nation Address.
Let the gambling addicts lose their wealth in the baccarat tables and the one-arm bandits, for all society cares.
Spare the young from the addiction made easy by online gaming.
Never mind if PAGCOR loses billions; the social costs are too enormous.
People must earn from the sweat of their brows, not from illusions of fortune and dreams of easy money.
