DAGUPAN CITY—Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz maintains that jueteng exists in the country, no matter what cover up gambling operators and their hired disciples do.

Cruz, top anti-jueteng advocate in the country who heads the Krusada ng Bayan Laban sa Jueteng (Jueteng-Free Philippines Crusade), said in a statement that gambling operators are trying hard to master the art of deception with the help of their hired disciples.

He said they fervently say something and yet intend to do exactly the opposite. In substance, the art of deception is to promote what is false and to cover-up what is true, he added.

“The better falsity is accepted as truth, the more deceit is perceived as reality, the more perfected become the art of deception,” Cruz said.

”But sad to say, the gambling lords and their avid followers, given their sick mentation and gross value system, are anything but artists of deception,” he said.

Cruz said their intentions are already suspect even before they are brought to execution.
He cited as the case in point the matter of jueteng where he said that “they (gambling operators) make attempts to cover up their racket. But their deceitful maneuvers are readily unmasked”.

He said there was the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) lotto gambit whose proponents loudly and repeatedly claimed: let their be lotto and jueteng would be gone!

“The result is a historical present: there is now lotto practically anywhere and there is jueteng practically everywhere,” he said.

Cruz noted there was another PCSO ploy. He said its endorsers clearly and fervently announced: let there be STL and jueteng would disappear from the face of the earth.

“The result is now the talk of the country. Even before STL could even have a foothold among its oppressed and depressed target bettors, jueteng is now happily up and about,” Cruz said.

Cruz said the point is simple: the strength, influence and bravado of jueteng lords and their cohorts do not come from any refined thinking nor sophisticated planning. Instead, the gambling syndicate in this country draws its continued operative existence not from moral but brute force, not from integrity but bribery, he added.

He said it is enough to recall the convincing composite content of the sworn expose made on the occasion of the relatively long Senate hearing on jueteng.

He said the route of multi-million jueteng payolas from the jueteng lord to key local and national public officials remains clear and defined.

Cruz said,” The jueteng comeback takes a return road, viz., green and go from the same officials to the same gambling lords. This is not creative but primitive. This is not art but junk.”.