‘Jueteng lords’ should run small town lottery, says lawmaker
BIG-time operators of “jueteng” should be allowed to take over the state-sanctioned Small Town Lottery (STL) to eradicate the illegal numbers game for good, a lawmaker said on Sunday.
Rep. Rodel Batocabe of Ako Bicol party-list said that it was logical to tap jueteng lords to manage the state-sanctioned STL since they have the necessary experience to increase its remittances to government.
“STL has been implemented to replace jueteng. But these jueteng lords are the experts here [in pocket lotteries]. They can be gathered in a convention, and the President could ask them for help on how they can have their business legalized. It’s the jueteng lords who should draft the rules on how to operate the STL to increase its revenues and ultimately, its remittances to the government,” Batocabe said in a radio interview.
Batocabe’s statement comes after President Rodrigo Duterte said that he couldn’t wage war on jueteng because jueteng lords may shift to drug trafficking instead.
“Congressional inquiries have revealed that STL operators are having a hard time earning revenues and as a result, their remittances to the government are far from expected of them. If you let the jueteng lords take over STL operations, they would know community where their operation is located,” Batocabe said.
“It would even be cheaper for jueteng lords because they won’t have to give payoffs to so many people just to get their business going [unlike in jueteng],” Batocabe said. LLANESCA T. PANTI
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