Archbishop Cruz says small-town lotto front for jueteng

Small-town lottery (STL) is just a "mask" that hides the continuous operation of jueteng, which politicians are keeping alive to finance their election bids in 2007. Archbishop Oscar Cruz of the north Luzon provinces of Lingayen and Dagupan made this claim Tuesday, adding that STL cannot be stopped because the justice system has become "cross-eyed." "Maskara yan at drama. Pagka't malapit ang 2007 elections kaya nagkukumahog ganyan maglatag ng sugal at STL kasama ang jueteng. Alam natin ang election pinapaandar ng sugal. Ngayon legal pa ang nagpapaandar. (STL is just a mask, a drama. The 2007 election is drawing near and STL and jueteng will be used to finance the election campaigns of some politicians. The only difference is that there is now a legal cover for gambling)," Cruz said in an interview on dzBB radio. Cruz also belied the claim of Puerto Princesa (Palawan) mayor Edward Hagedorn, Arroyo’s appointed anti-jueteng czar, that he invited the prelate to join government's monitoring group to oversee the implementation of STL. He said the country has already seen how jueteng financed the campaigns of some political figures in 2004, while encouraging those in the countryside to rely on luck instead of work. The prelate noted that those who will run STL are likely the same persons who ran jueteng, but will be using dummies this time. He also said gamblers will likely reject STL and stick with jueteng because the bets in this illegal numbers game are cheaper, at P1 per bet compared to STL’s P10, and its rules are more lenient because a bettor can win regardless of the sequence of numbers while STL requires straight betting. The bishop explained STL uses numbers 1 to 40, while jueteng has 1 to 37, so there is a bigger chance of losing in STL. "Puwede kang tumaya ng P5 nang dalawang beses, 4 na numbers, pwede baligtaran pa (With jueteng, you can make two P5 bets using four numbers, which you can interchange)," he said. Cruz added his group Krusadang Bayan Laban sa Jueteng (People’s Crusade against Jueteng) will fight STL, but not in the present courts under Arroyo’s government. "Itong gobyernong ito mahirap labanan. Alam natin ang hustisya di nakadilat kundi duling pa. Mahirap labanan anuman gusto ng gobyerno sa ngayon (It is hard to go against this government because we know the eyes of Lady Justice are not wide open, but cross-eyed)," he said. He said he can only urge people in the province not to fall for the lure of easy money even as he dismissed government’s claims that STL will give jobs to former jueteng collectors.-GMANews.TV