Is jueteng so bad?

Noynoy has told Jesse Robredo, the newly appointed Interior and Local Government Secretary, to clamp down on jueteng, an illegal numbers game that has been a thread running through Philippine public life for the last 10 years, touching both the previous two presidents.

Still, when it comes down to it, I can’t see that jueteng is so different from the many forms of state-sponsored gambling in the Philippines.

Jueteng employs tens of thousands of people, many of whom don’t have too many other options, as the film Kubrador showed. So a successful clamp-down on jueteng will take income away from many people who need it to survive.

The bets cast by millions of Filipinos every week indicate a demand for small-stakes betting that is not met by Lotto. Jueteng brings punters door-to-door personalized service and they like that.

If you believe in the market, surely the answer is to legalize jueteng, tax it heavily, and get the state out of gambling. The clamp down seems hypocritical when the state is so heavily involved in casinos and lotteries.

Noynoy’s instruction also seems to confirm a lack of empathy with the needs of the poor. In the short term all this will mean for poor people is hassle, greater police presence in the barangay, and ever larger pay-offs to corrupt policemen and politicians to encourage them to look the other way. It is revealing that the only candidate to support the legalization of jueteng was Erap, whose constituency is most affected by the criminalization of the game.

Let’s face it, Jesse Robredo ain’t going to be able to “stamp out” jueteng. I doubt whether there is anyone in the country who thinks that will happen. We will have the usual six-month fanfare, a few low-profile arrests, and then it will be back to where we were. So what’s the point apart from appeasing Archbishop Oscar Cruz?

Incidentally, today’s Inquirer reminded me of this interesting little story:

In May 2005, Wilfredo Cimanis Mayor, a confessed jueteng operator, testified at a Senate hearing that then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s son, then Pampanga Rep.Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, two other congressmen, and a former lawmaker used to send bagmen to collect gambling pay-offs from him.

Mayor said he was given Mikey Arroyo’s alleged bagman, Arturo Naguit, a former vice-mayor of Minalin, Pampanga, P600,000 a month as protection money.

Mikey Arroyo denied the accusation.

Mayor was killed in an ambush in Pasay city in February.

So I guess that was convenient for Mikey then.

Comments

[J]

I was going to post something similar to this, but you beat me to it! ^_^ I agree, jueteng should indeed be legalized. A crackdown would only embolden the authorities even more in their habit of soliciting bribe in exchange for protection.

[Carla]

I think objection to jueteng should be based on the critical role it plays in sustaining local pols and their networks. Jueteng fills many a small-town mayor's coffers and sustains the apparatus that keeps him/her in power (police, political wards, etc). That apparatus is no different from the apparatus of patronage politics that pervades the Philippine countryside. That's why national politicians/figures are the most vocal against it--their power depends on a different calculus of forces.

I doubt jueteng can ever be stamped out but I also doubt it will ever be legalised. It's not just the Catholic church that will oppose that, it will be warlords who benefit from it.

[Carla]

On a related note, maybe we can adopt some of the gambling practices from here. It's highly amusing to see what people bet on at Ladbrokes(from football results to their own life spans). Maybe Pinoys can bet on Kris Aquino's lovelife, or the chances of a hailstorm in the middle of the dry season, etc. More entertaining than jueteng.

[Jon Limjap]

Hmmm, my only problem with this is.

I can replace the word "jueteng" with "marijuana" in your blog post and the arguments will still be valid.

Maybe all forms of gambling should just be legalized, period.

[J]

But marijuana is not gambling.

[a]

Noynoy will be assassinated if he pushes through with legalization.

A crackdown on the other hand is good from the point of view of political points with the media and masses. It's also good for the kickback beneficiaries (ie, all local execs, lawmakers, and police) in that crackdown equals more kickback for protection.

But he can never get congressmen to legalize it, as they're one of the beneficiaries of jueteng kickbacks.

[a]

"Jueteng fills many a small-town mayor's coffers and sustains the apparatus that keeps him/her in power (police, political wards, etc).
Posted by: Carla | July 12, 2010 at 06:34 AM"

Really? I think they use it to buy SUVs and mansions and GROs.

This is the reason why political positions that pay a few thousand pesos are highly contested in our land.

BTW, the police have their own kickbacks, independent from mayor and govs.

[Carla]

Sure, the mayors, etc. buy SUVs , etc. but that's beside the point. They also use money obtained through other means (i.e. corruption, maybe drugs, etc.) to buy those luxuries.

Jueteng money maintains the *apparatus* that is used to run jueteng operations, which is virtually the same as the local political network. You only have to observe how local electoral campaigns are run to see that the political wards in every barangay are organised and financed through jueteng operations.

[a]

Are you implying that jueteng bribes are used to maintain operations, ergo, politicians are jueteng operators?

If yes I think you have the wrong idea.

Jueteng is monopolized by only a few jueteng lords, among them Bong Pineda. They use bagmen to distribute protection money from mayors to police up to the president.

The latter don't get involved in jueteng. They're only role is to receive the bayong of money every month.

[Carla]

No, I'm not implying that at all. Not all (local) politicians are jueteng operators but the network maintained by jueteng money is critical to them. (Arguably, the money might even be of secondary importance compared to the network.) It's the perfect symbiotic relationship, which is why I doubt it will ever go away.

What other network goes as deep as the barangay level, street by street, house to house? The jueteng apparatus employs people who possess vast amounts of social information and interact with residents on a daily basis in transactions that involve trust. It remains intact in between elections, while campaign machines are dormant.

This is not even original. PCIJ published research on this in the early 1990s. I remember it won the Jaime V. Ongpin award. Can't remember the title just now.

[Carla]

Found it. This is the second part of the three-part series.

http://pcij.org/stories/1995/jueteng2.html

[a]

I don't see how it's symbiotic. To say that it's sybiotic is to imply that one relies on the other.

That's just not true. Jueteng is maintained by the patrons who pay, not politicians. Politicians may allow it to operate, but that's not to say they're "maintaining" it. Actually, politicians take a lot away from the jueteng network, by way of harrassment of cabos and cubradors and eroding the gambling lord's earnings. It is estimated that 70 to 80 centavos per 1 peso goes to bribes, leaving only 20 to 30 cents to maintain the whole network, from the cubrador's pay to the gambling lord's profits.

In the same vein, jueteng does not maintain the political networks in the Philippines. To prove this point, know that jueteng only exists on a massive level in Luzon. Only the mayors, governors, senators, congressmen, and police in Luzon (including the president and v.p.) get jueteng kickbacks. Visayan and Mindanao politicos don't get jueteng kickbacks for the simple fact it does not exist or is less popular there. But that does not mean the political networks in Visayas or Mindanao are "less maintained" because of the non-existence of kickbacks. Political networks are about the same the whole islands over. It's just that Luzon politicos have more disposable income by way of jueteng kickback and Mindanao politicos have more drug kickback money. Visayan politicians are the pooorest of the lot in terms of corruption earnings.

Re: the importance of social networks of cubradors. This is pretty much useless. Kubradors may know their customers and their gambling habits, but it has no use for political or sociological purposes. It would be giving the the cubradors and jueteng network too much credit to think this knowledge is important for social cohesion or whatever. Cubradors do their rounds 3 to 4 times a day, leaving less time for social interaction and information sharing.

[Pepe Alas]

I agree. Jueteng should be legalized. It helps so many poor people. Anyway, I see no difference between small-time jueteng and large-scale gambling inside Casino Filipino.

[Juicy Couture Bags]

Work hard, i need have a rest. read the news online.

[vibram five fingers]

a few low-profile arrests, and then it will be back to where we were.

[utah gynecologist]

Having unprotected sex with a random partner.

[dr dre headphones]

I agree. Jueteng should be legalized. It helps so many poor people. Anyway, I see no difference between small-time jueteng and large-scale gambling inside Casino Filipino.

[vibram five fingers]

Every body is dieing to see you again.. So if I were you, I will come back very soon.

[coach outlet canada]

Grimm to Hans Christian Andersen to Wagner. She writes at great length as well about what these stories meant to the people of the day, and that it was an era obsessed with children's stories. Not just with adapting and creating new ones, but in reading them and discussing them.You can see in thesdf world she simultaneously evokes and documents the seeds that would later sprout into Tolkein, and indeed (although he never appears in it) the book ends shortly before Tolkein's first writings were published.

[gucci outlet]

I have played in five major orchestras over the span of a forty year career, and I have never seen such a severe budget crisis all across the board for what has always been a fragile institution. Symphony budgets consist of three leadfgs; ticket sales (cover no more than 40% of the budget), fund raising, and some government support (usually state or local).

Read more: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2010/08/haridopolos-medicaid-bus-tour-rolling-through-town-near-you.html#ixzz1NkU0eNJM

[vibram five fingers]

The clamp down seems hypocritical when the state is so heavily involved in casinos and lotteries.

[north face backpack]

Work hard, i need have a rest. read the news online.

[Atherol]

Albert and Charlene, married in grand weekend ceremonies in Monaco, are former Olympians. Albert competed in five Winter Olympics as part of Monaco's bobsled team. Charlene swam for South Africa in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

[Official NFL Jerseys]

great stuff~~!! I like it , just like the coach ~ ~

[Tory Burch Shoes]

Excellent post,thanks for sharing.the coach sale are hot for every one at us , i think you will like it~