ILOILO City – Several politicians in Region 6 are using dummies to raise campaign funds via illegal gambling, according to the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6).
They are not directly handling illegal gambling operations thus it is difficult to catch them, said Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, PRO-6 director.
“Their dummies do the legwork,” he said.
Bulalcao cited as example a mayor in Capiz province. He said this local chief executive operates the illegal numbers game “bookies.”
He declined to identify the mayor for now but said this official “is being monitored.”
“Once we have enough evidence, this mayor would be arrested. Wala tayong pinipili basta may violation sa ating batas,” Bulalacao said.
From Jan. 1 to Feb. 4 this year, 299 persons across Western Visayas have been arrested for illegal gambling, PRO-6 records showed.
Bulalacao said the PRO-6 is being swamped with phone calls and text messages linking several midterm election candidates to illegal gambling operations.
Informants claimed these candidates were raising funds through the illegal numbers game bookies to finance their campaign.
The information, however, needed validation thus Bulalacao said he won’t be publicly identifying these candidates for now.
The midterm elections are on May 13. The campaign period for candidates for local elective posts (congressman, governor, vice governor, mayor, vice mayor, sanggunian member) starts on March 29.
Bulalacao said the candidates being linked to illegal gambling were running for mayor, town councilor and even congressman.
“Appropriate charges will be filed against them if we have evidence,” said Bulalacao. “I ordered my police chiefs across the region to exert more effort to arrest those engaged in illegal gambling para walang kita ang mga kandidato na ito para sa kanilang kampanya.”/PN
