Poor mayors, ain’t got no fronts for jueteng

Mayors and chiefs of police in Pangasinan are sad these days. Why? The Court of Appeals has just lifted the 60-day Temporary Restraining Order filed by Meridien Vista Gaming Corporation (MVGC) to operate Jai-Alai outside the Cagayan Freeport Zone.
They are sad because illegal number game jueteng operators don’t have the legal front to abet the poor man’s game of chance.
As you know, bet collectors of Jai-Alai, who used to be cobradores of jueteng, could just flash to all and sundry their Meridien I.Ds to avoid apprehension.
But every bettor knows that underneath the papelitos of Jai-Alai they brought were sheet lists of numbers from jueteng bettors.
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I don’t believed the statements of a colleague in the trade that the presence of despised and controversial media man Atong Remogat at the bid of Mangatarem Mayor Teddy Cruz for the presidency of the Pangasinan’s Mayors’ League (PML) caused him to losethe election that was held at Lenox Hotel in Dagupan City last July 15.
The monies given to some mayors allegedly by Dasol mayor Noel Nacar catapulted him to the PML’s top post.The rationale, according to my source, was some mayors in Pangasinan have a price tag, too, like the ordinary vulnerable voters they paid to vote for them.
It was a close fight of 21 votes for Nacar and 17 votes for Teddy since latter did not resort to vote buying because of the presumption that fellow mayors would cherish friendship and camaraderie than the glitters of monies offered by the other camp.
Susmariosep, he was darn wrong.
In the midst of the absence of jueteng and jai-alai as front, mayors in Pangasinan have a hard time to meet both ends before their needy constituents.
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This mayor in Pangasinan does not trust the president of the Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) in this town.
He said that this top official (who has a rank of a municipal councilor) tried to double cross him in the past but to no avail.
He told me that in 2010, the ABC guy told him to join forces when the former would ran for the vice mayoralty under his slate.
“Hindi akopumayag. I was not stupid enough to get him as my second fiddle. Tapos, pag vice mayor nasiya, ipapatayniyaakoparasiyanaangmaging mayor,” he disclosed.
He said despite of his being mayor, this ABC’s prexy keeps being elected in his present post because majority of the barangay captains who supported him were indebted to him through the high powered firearms he gifted them and their fear to politically abandon him because of his capacity to neutralize them.
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Politicians should watch the shenanigans of their media PR guy.
A press liaison of a mayor in Central Pangasinan has the propensity to sneak two names of media men who were not on the events called by his mayor who needs members of the FourthEstate to cover it.
Sometimes when it was an event held in that town called by dignitaries, this liaison and his office colleague asked media guys to include their names, too.
His reasons: Two get a piece of actions on whatever financial dole-outs customarily given by VIPs to media men.
Mayor, you should check these scoundrels in your midst. Ninanakawanna kayo, masisira pa kayo doon sa mga kaibiganniyona high officials.
(You can read my selected intriguing but thought-provoking columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com).