LEGAZPI CITY: Illegal numbers game such as jueteng and loteng continue to surge in Bicol region as the May election nears.

The local newly organized Pipol Against Graft and Corruption heap the blame on legalized lottery operations such as the small town lottery and jai alai that only serves as front for the flourishing illegal numbers game.

An anticorruption group official said that it had received reports that gambling lords are scrambling for control and shares for area expansions in the numbers game operation.

Chief Supt. Clarence Guinto, newly designated Bicol police regional director, has yet to issue a statement about the illegal numbers game and the much vaunted but inactive Philippine National Police one-strike-policy.

Col. Renato Bataller, Bicol police body spokesman, said that the one strike policy of the police is a national policy that should be implemented by every unit in the police. He said in a text message that there is no illegal numbers game in Bicol, saying that what we have has the permit referring to jai alai operation of the Meredien Virtual Gaming Corp.

In Catanduanes province, jueteng is out but loteng operation was rampant that police and local executives simply ignored operation. It was once reported as a P300-million industry.

former mayor Jose Arcangel Jr., the anticorruption group president, said that he would coordinate with retired Lingayen archbishop Oscar Cruz, to join his efforts in rejecting the illegal numbers game. Cruz is the founder of the of the Krusadang Bayan Laban sa Jueteng.

Arcangel said that Albay, Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte and Sorsogon have the strongest illegal numbers game operations in the region’s six provinces. A Camarines Sur police provincial director was relieved for ignoring the existing antijueteng directive of the late Interior secretary Jesse Robredo.

A former mayor of Jovellar town in Albay for 24 years, Arcangel said that during his stint as mayor, jueteng couldn’t thrive in his town because he simply rejects it. He also recalled the stint of then Col. Ferdinand Lagman, Albay police provincial commander, several years ago when the once well-entrenched jueteng operations died out.

“When can we find another Colonel Lagman, who also paralyzed feared criminals involved in robbery and holdup in Albay during his term?” the former mayor asked.

Arcangel noted that the cities of Legazpi, Tabaco and Ligao are the center of operations of the illegal numbers game in the province wondering why the much-vaunted one-strike policy of the police body seems inoperative in Albay and neighboring provinces.

Former mayor and now administrator Noel Rosal of Legazpi, whose wife is the incumbent mayor, said that all that he knew is that jai alai operates in the city. He said that jai alai has a permit to operate issued by the provincial board.

Arcangel lamented that in Tabaco City, a barely one month in office police chief was suddenly relieved after his successful operation against jueteng and drugs last year.

Arcangel said that there is no STL franchise in Albay for over four years now, however, bet collectors for jai alai are same collectors for jueteng being disguised as jai alai if not as a small town lottery.

Arcangel said that rivalry in illegal numbers game continue for a wider control of the illegal operation, saying that what took place in Atimonan, Quezon could also possibly occur in Albay and any province.