EDITORIAL

Can they really stop Jueteng in Bicol?


GOVERNMENT efforts to crackdown illegal gambling in the country is not that successful as promised.

What seems to be the problem with the law enforcers especially the Philippine National Police and the local government officials?

No less than PNP direcrtor Jesus Versosa stressed that illegal gambling especially “Jueteng” must be stopped at once.

In Bicol region alone, “Jueteng operation is rampant, law enforcers opt to stop the operation of Jueteng behind the Small Time Lottery (STL) in Bicol only when there is a high ranking officials visiting the region.

Some enforcers even mix thing up when they halt the operation of the legitimate STL for taking it as Jueteng. The ‘which’ and the ‘What’ seemed to have been confused with.

Police and local officials became silent when it comes to the issue whether to stop or not the operation of Jueteng.

If director Versosa is truly sincere in his campaign why in Bicol Region particularly in Albay does “Jueteng” operation continue to operate.

Although several apprehensions have been made against “Jueteng” collector the existence of this illegal numbers game freely operates in full throttle.

It is very embarrassing on the part of the police authorities and local government official who pretend to be law abiding citizens. It seems they have been blinded by the shining jueteng payola.

The media which is sometimes taunted as mum on the issue is in the first place not the ones responsible for curbing Jueteng. It is the police authorities’ job.

And so “Jueteng” thrives in Bicol.



Airport Safety
March 8-14, 2009

How safe is your place?
One should ask this question if he thinks of becoming a tourist to a particular or after having been invited by a friend to visit his hometown.
Legazpi is traying its best to answer all questions relative to this issue without letting words scape from the nostrils.
Among the most considered issue is the peace and order situation. Legazpi City and Albay is generally safe if you ask the authorities about this.
Aside from peace and order, the neatness of the area and the cost of doing a sortie around and the number of tourist spots. All of these have favorable answers in Albay and Legazpi City.
Taxi fares? well there are no taxis here! The alternative is Tricycle. But problems of extortions and overcharging is still to be fully addressed as several reports still bug the local chief executives on such abuses.
Now how safe is your airport? One would ask. This has been sour and only discovered when a Cebu Pacific plane piloted by an expert from France was missed by a possible ‘fireball’ of death among 80 passengers that included Tourism Secretary Ace Durano and his family. Mayor Rosal was at the tarmac to welcome the visitors. Unfortunately the abusive son of the air transportation officials has allegedly been andangering the aircraft passengers by using the runway as his access road during air traffic hours.
Now, would a mere call for retirement be enough to punish Frisco Sto. Domingo. He and his son must be put in jail!!!(If only in other countries)


Jubilant veterans

When all is said and done, the reality is that the World War II Filipino Veterans, those who survived the twilight of their years in particular, can rejoice now, even belatedly.

Okay, we smirk at the thought that their valor and sacrifices were reduced to dollars and cents; we shudder at how those who died in the 63-year gap since the war ended were unable to get what their living comrades now enjoy, or ought to enjoy, granting that death can be postponed even for a year until February 18, 2010, when all claims shall have been fully paid.

At the end of the day, surviving veterans, or their immediate beneficiaries, should still be grateful to Uncle Sum for the $ 198 million lump-sum appropriation that was inserted into the just signed stimulus bill by President Barack Obama.

In life as a whole, a popular adage says, fix your eyes on the doughnut, and not upon the hole.

For Pinoy veterans living in the Philippines the doughnut of $ 9,000.00 translates to no less than P 400,000.00, and that's quite an amount, considering that many grand old lolos now in their 80's and 90's still remain a crucial breadwinner of their families, new or extended families of married apos living under one roof.

For those living in the US, the doughnut is $ 15,000.00, and a portion of it would surely end up in the country like any remittances from our OFWs sent home.

Sixty-three years. What a long time, even if we consider that the serious effort to fight for the Equity Bill in the US was just about the past fifteen years or so.

And so, out of the estimated 200,000-strong Filipino veterans - the guerillas, the USAFFE, or Philippine Scouts -- only some 18,000 to 20,000 remained alive, and this number is fast diminishing at the rate of 10 persons dying per day, according to grim statistics.

In the US over the years, some American war veterans have been working round the clock the past six decades to correct the moral injustice inflicted to their Pinoy buddies, and they deserve due respect, like Sen. Daniel Inouye, himself a US veteran (in the European war theater).

Since 1946, Pinoy veterans had been promised the doughnut but got instead the doughnut's hole. Now the real doughnuts have arrived, and for that alone we should celebrate.