Anak ng Jueteng, here goes another zarzuela. Bugallon, Pangasinan Mayor Rodrigo Orduna claimed he personally delivered jueteng payola to Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino for the past nine years. Orduna, a confessed jueteng operator and trouble-shooter, also promoted Espino, from governor, to lord, a jueteng lord who allegedly rakes monthly take of about P10 million.     

All counted, Espino was said to have amassed P900 million from the illegal numbers racket according to Orduna.

I wonder what motivated Orduna to rat on Espino. Was it a deal gone sour? Nabukulan o Nagkabukulan. Why, after many years of delivering the jueteng moolah allegedly to Espino, would Orduna make his revelation only now? Well, this story of the kettle calling the pot black in the history of juetengnovela is not entirely a new plot. As the kibitzers would later say—napanuod ko na yan.

Ever since this numbers game literally meaning Flower Bet was invented by the Chinese and widely condoned by the Spanish during their centuries-long tenure in the country, jueteng has been implanted in the system of the poor and the corrupt. The poor Juan hoping for a get-rich-quick ticket out of financial misery will bet his hard earned peso and hope that the Gods of Juetenglandia will grant or pick his bet. The corrupt official, meanwhile, say to the bettor—bring it on.

Since time immemorial, jueteng has become the alternative ATM of corrupt officials, from police to mayors and governors. Jueteng payoff scandal even brought down a popular sitting president of this country once. As one police official, who is also a lawyer, told me many years ago—pare, sabihin mo sa akin kung sino sa mga heneral na iyan o opisyal ng gobyerno ang hindi anak ng jueteng, pasasampal ako sa iyo. Nobody could have put it more eloquently.

But as if not enough, vulture politicians have other ways to scheme and earn multimillion bucks, especially during election time. They shake down big businessmen, holding their permits and license hostage and generally making it hard for the negosyante to conduct his business till the helpless business owner gives their donation to Mr. Politiko, forced donation of course.

I have seen and heard countless tales of business owners being hounded by these elected hoodlums. Do they have a choice?

In the 2011 Corruption Perception Index released by Transparency International-Philippines, we ranked 129th out of 183 countries and it was an improvement from our previous standing of being the 134th country with prevalent perception of corruption. Shame.

So really what ails this country? Is it us or the people we elect to represent and govern us? As the May elections hear, look at those smiling candidates, it takes an art to smile and announce a hold up.

Benjamin Disraeli best summed it all up—There is no gambling like politics, wanna bet?

* * *

Happy birthday to a good friend of mine, Edward Navarette.

Edward, who used to work for a tv network, have been instrumental in giving jobs to several cameramen, writers and researchers who were fired or resigned from another tv network facing countless labor cases before the national labor relations commission for illegal termination of its employees for several years now.

“Navarette,” as he is popularly known in that tv station never asked or seek favors from those he had given jobs.

The last time I heard, Edward is now a consultant for a big media relations group in Ortigas, Pasig.

Happy birthday again Ed and thanks for helping a lot of people.

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