Nerve Shots

After a long hiatus, the feisty Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago unleashed a bomb yesterday specifically identifying government officials and personalities involved in the billion peso racket called jueteng. Santiago listed all the names and came out firing. Santiago's delivery was like a volley of shots coming from an M-16 armalite rifle. 


As soon as their names were mentioned, every single one in that list denies any complicity. Obviously, they would deny it. Being tagged as a jueteng lord is like having leprosy. People would definitely avoid having contact with you for one single reason---you're getting your money the most dishonest way. To rake millions every single day in jueteng, you have to have the guts to rig it. Meaning, the game is totally dishonest. It then feeds in the simple minds of the people who are motivated only by the desire to augment their poor incomes. The sham game goes to a cycle--rigging, betting, rigging, betting, then hoping. 


The only reason why jueteng is difficult to erase is simple--it has history written all over its face.  The game has been there since the Spanish times. The jueteng lords named are probably third or even fifth generation successors of previous gambling dons. And the sophisticated network is far modern than what the Mafia dons have in Chicago or those of the Japanese mafia. Maybe, the jueteng model is the precursor to the models being adopted by modern syndicates. 


Now, why is government attacking jueteng? Simple. It wants to take part in the billion peso racket. It wants to legalize jueteng so that those millions are then taken off the streets and into the public coffers. Laudable? No.


Government should not take any part in gambling. Gambling is a moral disease. Being a moral disease, you cannot take part in it. Like I said, jueteng is somewhat like leprosy. If you dip your fingers into it, chances are, you'll catch the disease and slowly you feel that you're losing your fingers, and your hands, and then, poof!


Taking part in jueteng makes it a state policy and government should not even think of getting into this kind of business.