A man from a remote barangay in Central Luzon unwittingly placed a bet on “jueteng,” the underground lottery so despised by the clergy in his area.
He didn’t win the pot, but got an unenviable prize just the same: The infamy of having his name displayed at the local chapel as a “sugalero” (gambler).
A new movement formed by antigambling advocate, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz, is planning a similar shame campaign to discourage people from gambling, whether legal or illegal.
“We would like our chapters to come up with their own creative approach against gambling,” he said yesterday in a press conference launching the Krusadang Bayan Laban sa Sugal.
The new group was the archbishop’s answer to what he called the Arroyo administration’s relentless promotion of a “gambling culture” in the country.
It’s an offshoot of the existing Krusadang Bayan Laban sa Jueteng, whose scope was apparently limited by the “metamorphosis” of jueteng into the Small Town
Cruz, arguably President Macapagal-Arroyo’s toughest foe in the antigambling front, encouraged supporters of the new group to also employ the shame drive against lottery bettors.
He noted that the STL, a failed gambling project during the Aquino administration, was no different from “jueteng.” It allegedly uses the same structure, system, manpower, and protectors of the multimillion-peso illegal numbers game.
Today, 95 percent of Regions 1 to 5 have either jueteng or STL operations, former gambling operator Wilfredo “Boy” Mayor, a member of the new group, said in the same press conference.
“The STL will eventually disappear to pave the way for the complete resurgence of jueteng,” predicted Mayor, a former jueteng lord in Bicol who also had an experience with the STL in the late 1980s.
Oscar Orbos, a former Pangasinan governor now working with the antigambling movement, was not sold to the idea of the government serving both as “regulator and operator” of gambling in the country.
He said the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. should be abolished and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office limited to charity functions.
Besides Cruz, two other prelates had publicly condemned the STL.
Archbishop Paciano Aniceto of San Fernando, Pampanga had pointed out that even if the STL was legal, “not all legal is moral.”
Balanga, Bataan Bishop Socrates Villegas had earlier said the game was an affront to the “heroism and holiness” of his province.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
