by Larry Lopez
     
TABUK, Kalinga – The intensified campaign against illegal numbers game here led to the arrest of six jueteng bettors in barangay Agbannawag, this town.

 Tabuk police chief Bobby Glen Ganipac said his troops apprehended the suspects who were on the act of collecting jueteng bets. Recovered from them were P1,120 cash in different denominations believed to be bets and other jueteng paraphernalia.

The campaign against jueteng gained headway after President Benigno S. Aquino III ordered Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Sec. Jesse Robredo to stop the operation of illegal numbers game.
Jueteng or the poor man’s version of lotto widely proliferates in rural areas, including here in Kalinga, where bets could be as low as two to five pesos.

 In Tabuk, jueteng has been stopped through sustained police operation since March.

 According to Ganipac, the six bettors arrested in barangay Agbannawag revealed they were under jueteng operators from Isabela.

 Since jueteng operations stopped in Tabuk,  Agbannawag, which is very near Isabela became a prospect operation area, Ganipac disclosed.

 Although the six are all from the province, they are hired as jueteng bettors of the operator from Isabela secretly operating in guerilla like system in Tabuk, Ganipac said.

 The six are now charged before the provincial prosecutor’s office of violation of anti-illegal gambling act. *(PIA-CAR/ Kalinga)