BACOLOD City Police Office (BCPO) Director Ricardo de la Paz on Sunday said the BCPO is not sparing anybody in its campaign against illegal gambling, particularly jai-alai.
“It is illegal. Anybody who is involved in it will be arrested,” dela Paz said following reports that a jai-alai operator known as Meridien is operating in the city and some police officers are sparing Meridien’s people. De la Paz stressed that Meridien as well as other jai-alai operations in the city is illegal. “They do not have a franchise to operate here in the city,” de la Paz said. However, he also disclosed that operators and financiers of jai-alai are competing with each other and trying to discredit one another at the expense of policemen. He said he will look into the reports that policemen under Stations 4 and 5 are allegedly not arresting Meridien’s people. De la Paz assured that policemen under the BCPO are serious in the campaign to stop illegal gambling activities in the city. He appealed that those who are accusing cops of favoring certain jai-alai operators and financiers should prove their allegations. He said it is also possible that jai alai-operators are the ones sending text messages to discredit their competitors. Earlier, Senior Superintendent Allan Guisihan also said that as far as the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Noppo) is concerned, the operation of Meridien in the province is illegal. While there is a case in court regarding the legality of Meridien’s jai-alai operations outside of Cagayan Valley, Guisihan said that as far as Noppo is concerned, Meridien has no permit to operate in the province so it is considered illegal. He said that Meridien operations in Cagayan is maybe legal because it has a permit to operate there but outside Cagayan is a different story. Meanwhile, Bacolod City Councilor El Cid Familiaran said he will file a resolution calling on the local police to minimize, if not, eradicate the illegal numbers game in the city. Familiaran said that illegal gambling operators are discretely operating in the city. He said the apprehensions of their bet collectors are a manifestation that they exist in the city. He added that he is consulting his lawyers about the possibility of seeking the help of the Department of Justice to increase the cash bond from P24,000 to P100,000 so that the operator will have a hard time shouldering the fines and legal expenses of those who were arrested and jailed. He said that a bet collector, once apprehended, will pay a cash bond of P24,000. If the cash bond is increased to P100,000, then this will be burdensome the operators who will suffer in paying for the bail of their arrested bet collectors. By Carla N. Canet Sun.Star Bacolod
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