In a joint statement, House Majority Leader Prospero Nograles and Deputy Speaker for Mindanao Gerry Salapuddin said Arroyo’s non-invitation by the Senate will affirm the doctrine and the direct implication is that Arroyo cannot be called to testify even if he is willing to do so, as this would set a bad precedent.
Nograles and Salapuddin said if there is any accusation against Arroyo, then this should be made in the House so he can be investigated by the House Ethics Committee.
The House leaders were reacting to the statement of Villar, chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Illegal Drugs, that he was not inclined to invite Arroyo or any other congressman linked in the jueteng issue out of inter-parliamentary courtesy.
Any complaint against any Congress member may be lodged with the House Ethics Committee if the accused is a congressman, or the Blue Ribbon Committee if a senator, said Salapuddin. "We have our own internal rules covering our respective members."
Nograles said inter-parliamentary courtesy should apply even if Arroyo is willing to testify on the jueteng issue.
PNP morale is high despite attempts to link officers to ‘jueteng’ — Lomibao
By ARIS R. ILAGAN
Director General Arturo C. Lomibao, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), yesterday said that the morale of the 119,000strong police organization remains high despite attempts by some sectors to link a few senior PNP officers to "jueteng" operations.
In an interview, Lomibao also welcomed the text messages being circulated by some groups that claimed jueteng operations in selected areas continue despite his order for a massive crackdown against the illegal lottery.
"I would like to thank our concerned citizens for texting or reporting the recurrence of jueteng operations because this are the only way we can get feedback from the citizens," he said.
Based on field reports relayed to the PNP National Headquarters at Camp Crame in Quezon City, Lomibao said that all municipalities and cities in Luzon were already declared "jueteng-free" by local police officials and some church leaders.
However, the PNP chief said that the PNP leadership is continuously validating field reports on the police’s anti-illegal gambling campaign to determine if a claim by a police commander that his area of responsibility is jueteng free is a propaganda to retain his post.
Lomibao said that police regional directors were also tasked to validate and confirm reports submitted by municipal and city police chiefs in connection with the anti-jueteng drive.
Police arrest .1 M people in ‘jueteng’ drive
By BEN R. ROSARIO
The Philippine National Police (PNP) lacks operational capacity to sustain an anti-"jueteng" drive but despite the handicap, the agency arrested nearly 100,000 persons and filed over 35,000 court cases in connection with its bid to stop underground number lotteries in the country in the past four years.
This was gathered as the House of Representatives Committee on Games and Amusement warned that it was giving confessed jueteng operator Wilfredo "Boy Bicol" Mayor another chance to appear before the House panel before issuing a subpoena that would force his appearance to air his views on a bill seeking legalization of jueteng and other outlawed numbers games.
Mayor, who implicated Pampanga Rep. Mikey Arroyo and three other solons to his jueteng operations, was among the 89 suspected financiers and operators of illegal lotteries who were invited by the House panel which started conducting jueteng hearings since February.
In another congressional proceedings on the jueteng issue, PNP Director General Arturo Lomibao stressed that the police has not wavered in its commitment to reject the legalization of jueteng and other illegal gambling games.
However, Lomibao admitted before members of the House Committee on Public Order and Security that lack of manpower and other operational resources are the principal handicaps the PNP is experiencing in sustaining an all-out war against gambling.
The PNP chief also echoed Isabela Governor Grace Padaca’s statement that the laws on illegal gambling are unclear on who among government officials will be held responsible for the proliferation of gambling games in a certain locality.
Rep. Arroyo was present during the hearing but found no need to interpellate the resource speakers invited, saying that he was more interested in directing his questions to Mayor, who told a Senate body that the congressman had received a monthly P600,000 protection payola when he was still active in jueteng operations in the Ilocos Region.
Aside from Mayor, the House body has sent invitations to suspected "jueteng" personalities Rodolfo "Bong" Pineda, Charing Magbuhos, Tony Santos, Otto Balboa, Boy and Jesse Vicencio, and Batangas Gov. Armando Sanchez.
In yesterday’s hearing, Lomibao said that as of Friday, the whole country is jueteng free. He added that a total 98,378 persons have been hauled to police jails for illegal gambling while 35,918 cases have already been filed in court against those arrested.
However, on questioning by Cavite Rep. Crispin Remulla, Lomibao admitted that the police have no available record as to the success rate of prosecution.
Pangasinan Rep. Amado Espino, chairman of the House Public Order and Security Committee, directed Lomibao to present a list of illegal gambling convictions.
Reacting to Remulla’s suggestion that the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office absorb the thousands of workers displaced as a result of the all-out PNP campaign against jueteng, PCSO Chairman Serge Valencia said that this is possible once jueteng is legalized.
In the same hearing, Padaca aired despair in addressing the jueteng problem, saying that she had asked the help of the PNP and local leaders in her 11-month crusade against illegal gambling but to no avail.
Mikey’s friends sue Mayor for libel
By CHARISSA M. LUCI
Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo’s political allies and friends Rene Maglanque, Leon Katigbak and Arturo Naguit, who were implicated by Wilfredo Mayor in the "jueteng" payola controversy, yesterday filed separate cases of perjury and libel against the former for maligning their reputation before the public.
Maglanque, Katigbak, and Naguit said their reputations were maligned and their names were dragged into a controversy which they said is a "demolition job" against Arroyo and his mother, President Arroyo.
Confessed jueteng operator Mayor publicly revealed that they met with him at Rembrandt Hotel in Quezon City and that Naguit informed him that P600,000 were to be remitted to Mikey Arroyo, tagged as "Anak", supposedly as protection money for Mayor’s proposed jueteng operations in Baguio City.
They said they were implicated into the jueteng controversy because they were political allies and closed friends of Mikey Arroyo.
They said that Mayor violated Article 183 of the Revised Penal Code when he deliberately made "false testimonies" and a crime of libel as defined in Article 355, in relation to Article 353 of the Revised Penal Code, for "maliciously and publicly imputing to them the commission of a crime and a vice despite the utter lack of truth and factual basis, and such imputation has caused them dishonor, discredit, and contempt."
Maglanque, an engineer and former Pampanga provincial board member, in his affidavit denied ever meeting Mayor and attending any meeting at the Rembrandt Hotel. He even said he has no knowledge whatsoever regarding jueteng or any of its operations.
