Marinduque: NO JUETENG IN MARINDUQUE?

                                                                   Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile

During the In September 2010 Senate committee hearings investigating the ‘jueteng’ scandals - in aid of legislation - Senators Enrile and Estrada at one point actually recommended legalization. Jueteng is the illegal numbers game that has remained unabated in various parts of the archipelago for the last hundred years. So it’s now a question really of whether we want to legalize it or not, stressed Enrile. 

Sen. Sotto disagreed citing Marinduque, of all places, as a province where, according to him, the illegal numbers game does not exist because of political will. “Ayaw ni Governor Carmencita”, Sotto said. The hearing was carried live on ANC. Yet on the same September day, a DILG spokesperson was interviewed over DZRH-Radyo Natin saying plainly that Marinduque and Pampanga (its governor also denied that jueteng existed there), are among the provinces where illegal numbers games exist. And today we see the Marinduque police and local officials up in arms versus this illegal numbers thing and other forms of gambling.

What’s the real score then? Truth is, male and female ‘cobradors’ collecting bets as they make the rounds of houses even in the most remote of Marinduque barangayshave become all-too-familiar sights, of course. A ‘kabo’ in motorcycle would collect all the bets and turn them over to the ‘bangka’ whose identity is known to only a few. 
Shortly after the operation of STLs, small town lotteries, ‘jueteng’ in Marinduque was replaced by the new variants, ‘suertres’ (three numbers) and ‘2-balls’ (two numbers). This means illegal gambling operators merely and freely make use of the results of PCSO-drawn numbers for the authorized ‘suertres’ and ‘EZ2 lotto’, that are just two among the many lotto games bettors follow nightly on television. 




A considerably huge number of people in every barangay are, of course, unhappy. They depended on the suertres and 2-balls operation for their daily income. The crusade was also against other forms of gambling like ‘patupada’, illegal cockfighting and ‘tong-its’, poker, and so a lot more people sulked.




..more @:
http://marinduquegov.blogspot.com/2010/11/no-jueteng-in-marinduque-look-again-now.html