BAUKO, Mountain Province – The municipal government ordered a stop to jueteng collections in the town’s twenty-two barangays to sustain the prevailing anti-gambling policy and prevent the entry of the illegal numbers game in the locality.
Mayor Randy Awisan stated that the collection of jueteng bets in the different barangays by collectors already stopped over the past several weeks because of the combined efforts of local officials and police authorities to abate the resurgence of gambling activities which is not acceptable to most of the residents.
He disclosed that a concrete example of the local government’s efforts to stop gambling operation is the recent successful raid in Mabaay where 8 alleged jueteng bet collectors were arrested in their alleged hideout and gambling joint in the area.
The municipal chief executive claimed that the arrested jueteng bet collectors are even residents of the municipality while other bet collectors who are not from the municipality were able to leave the town earlier that is why they were not arrested during the said raid on the gambling joint.
Mayor Awisan admitted that there were some Tagalog-speaking jueteng bet collectors that attempted to enter the municipality right after the magnitude 7 earthquake last July 27, 2022 but local officials and police authorities told them they are not welcome in the municipality which made them leave the town several days later.
Earlier, concerned residents from some of the town’s barangays questioned local officials and police authorities on the presence of jueteng bet collectors who reportedly openly collected jueteng bets in the different barangays over the past several days.
According to the mayor, the municipal government remains steadfast in ensuring there will be no gambling operations in the municipality to sustain the prevailing anti-gambling policy over the past several administrations.
He recognized the fact that the problem is that there are still enterprising jueteng bet collectors who continue to secretly collect bets from remote villages amidst the standing order for them to stop doing the illegal activity as this is the source of livelihood of the collectors.
Jueteng bet collectors are reportedly using the results of the Easy 2 draws by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to justify the collection of bets from the residents in the various barangays.
The mayor urged the barangay officials and police authorities to remain vigilant on the activities of people in their respective barangays and areas of jurisdiction to prevent the collection of gambling bets as this is illegal.
Bauko is the largest municipality in the province in terms of land area and the most populated local government and is located right at the heart of the Mount Data plateau where the main source of livelihood of the people include vegetable farming and tourism-related activities.
Bauko is also adjacent the towns of Buguias and Mankayan which are the northern towns of Benguet that are known strongholds of jueteng operations in the province over the past several years.