Legal STL bet collectors arrested in Guimaras?
Arresting the legitimate bet collectors and letting go the illegal ones.
This allegedly became the practice of the Guimaras Police Provincial Office (GPPO), according to some quarters operating the small town lottery (STL) based in Iloilo City.
According to the complainants, GPPO under Supt. Leo Becerial and Jordan Police Station under Insp. Cruz have been arresting their legitimate bet collectors who are donned with proper identification cards.
But PNP Regional Director Chief Supt. Isagani Cuevas said that he is not privy to the allegations.
“What I knew of is that I gave instructions for Supt. Becerial to arrest bookies (daily double, lotteng, ending, and the likes) because they are in violation of the illegal gambling law. It will be his call on how he would carry out that order. My concern is for him to base his actions based on the existing laws,” he added.
But Cuevas assured that he would look into the matter.
He would also order Becerial to submit a report on what kind of operations they conducted against illegal gambling in the province.
“But still, I suggest that complainants should file a formal complaint so that all their allegations will be properly investigated,” he said adding, “For now, it’s a puzzle to me why they were arrested if they are STL members. On what grounds were they arrested?”
According to some insiders, the sales of STL in Guimaras went down because of the bookies operations.
Reports pointed to three individuals who were allegedly operating bookies in the province.
Information added that one of them was just an alleged dummy of a well-known businessman in Panay Island.
Some reports claimed that the dummy gave a P500 bounty for every STL bet collector arrested.
But said allegations remain to be proven.
Meanwhile, Cuevas said that illegal gambling in Guimaras is not considered rampant.
Lately, however, the GPPO has not submitted any report with regards to the operations they conducted against any form of illegal games.
