Jueteng is a cultural malady that has long afflicted the Filipino people. To say that it does exist in Pampanga is a vicious lie.
Indomitable proofs of its bustling existence surround our everyday lives.
The last time I visited the City Central Transport Terminal in San Fernando, a list of the winning numbers (“cutejo”) was even prominently placed in one of the posts near the bus parking area for everyone’s convenience.
During lunch break today, I chanced upon a member of the City Police checking out the cutejo while chatting with the kubrador near the Pampanga Hotel. Just for the heck of it, a kubrador regularly visits the different city hall offices to get bets from the employees.
My mum is a jueteng aficionado, the number game being the only vice she has. Two or three kubradors visit our house everyday, some of them are our distant relatives. Sometimes she wins and gives “balato” to her grandchildren.
Only a Kapampangan who plays ignorant will claim that there is no jueteng in the province. Jueteng is part and parcel of the Kapampangan life. Most of the people I know have made jueteng bets at least once in their lives.
Would I like to have jueteng eradicated? Maybe if they close down all casinos and even the lottery which apply similar basic principles, to be on the fair side.
I have nothing against jueteng really. I know of families who thrive on jueteng alone for their day to day subsistence. Kabos and kubradors make a decent living out of jueteng, sending their kids to school with hard earned jueteng money. They say it is a lesser evil compared to thieving, drug pushing, prostitution, and kidnapping, and I agree.
What I find wrong is that jueteng money is in the hands of the few, an oligarchy if it were an economic enterprise. There have been investigations on jueteng scandals for as long as I could remember but virtually nobody has been confirmed as jueteng lords.
Alleged jueteng lords are public figures we all know but would rather not talk about, like Lord Voldermort who must not be named. If our society had its own caste system, lords of the jueteng kind will be among the untouchables because of the powers that be that protect them.
The poor kabo or kubrador who gets caught during police raids is merely the pawn of the real king, easily dispensable servants of a strong ruling class.
While some members of the Catholic Church have strongly opposed jueteng, I have seen priests hobnobbing with the jueteng elites. Perhaps some of the churches we go to or charitable foundations that help us were built through jueteng money. In which case, does the end ever justify the means?
Whether we like it or not, jueteng is our heritage of shame, to borrow scholarly words. Like prostitution, sabong, loan sharks, and other seemingly unacceptable things that we have come to terms with in our collective life as a people, jueteng is here to stay. It will take more than sheer guts and political will get rid of it.
Indomitable proofs of its bustling existence surround our everyday lives.
The last time I visited the City Central Transport Terminal in San Fernando, a list of the winning numbers (“cutejo”) was even prominently placed in one of the posts near the bus parking area for everyone’s convenience.
During lunch break today, I chanced upon a member of the City Police checking out the cutejo while chatting with the kubrador near the Pampanga Hotel. Just for the heck of it, a kubrador regularly visits the different city hall offices to get bets from the employees.
My mum is a jueteng aficionado, the number game being the only vice she has. Two or three kubradors visit our house everyday, some of them are our distant relatives. Sometimes she wins and gives “balato” to her grandchildren.
Only a Kapampangan who plays ignorant will claim that there is no jueteng in the province. Jueteng is part and parcel of the Kapampangan life. Most of the people I know have made jueteng bets at least once in their lives.
Would I like to have jueteng eradicated? Maybe if they close down all casinos and even the lottery which apply similar basic principles, to be on the fair side.
I have nothing against jueteng really. I know of families who thrive on jueteng alone for their day to day subsistence. Kabos and kubradors make a decent living out of jueteng, sending their kids to school with hard earned jueteng money. They say it is a lesser evil compared to thieving, drug pushing, prostitution, and kidnapping, and I agree.
What I find wrong is that jueteng money is in the hands of the few, an oligarchy if it were an economic enterprise. There have been investigations on jueteng scandals for as long as I could remember but virtually nobody has been confirmed as jueteng lords.
Alleged jueteng lords are public figures we all know but would rather not talk about, like Lord Voldermort who must not be named. If our society had its own caste system, lords of the jueteng kind will be among the untouchables because of the powers that be that protect them.
The poor kabo or kubrador who gets caught during police raids is merely the pawn of the real king, easily dispensable servants of a strong ruling class.
While some members of the Catholic Church have strongly opposed jueteng, I have seen priests hobnobbing with the jueteng elites. Perhaps some of the churches we go to or charitable foundations that help us were built through jueteng money. In which case, does the end ever justify the means?
Whether we like it or not, jueteng is our heritage of shame, to borrow scholarly words. Like prostitution, sabong, loan sharks, and other seemingly unacceptable things that we have come to terms with in our collective life as a people, jueteng is here to stay. It will take more than sheer guts and political will get rid of it.
