Letters to the Editor
Letters to the
editor are welcome on this page. Only those with complete name,
signature, contact number and return address for verification
shall be considered for publication, subject to editing and space
limitation when necessary - Editor-in-Chief.
All gamblers lose
I applaud the Catholic Church and Mayor Robredo for bringing the
moral issue of jueteng. But, I would not bet my one peso for
making this crusade succeeding.
Humanity is addicted to gambling. There are over 32 million
entries in the Google search engine for word gambling. The first
couple in paradise gambled their fate just for tasting that
forbidden fruit. They lost. With that, the succeeding generations
are forever in suspended purgatory. At least that’s the belief of
the Jews, Christians and Muslims.
The three amigos.
The plight from Sin to Redemption is littered with gamblers. Judas
gambled with a few dinares. His winning was a rope around his
neck.
Hitler gambled that the Aryan race is superior to Jewish race. He
used all kinds of tricks to cheat his way in, and of course he
lost. Marcos gambled that he can be the President for life. He
lost. His prize: a frozen body still on display in his beloved
Ilocos. The American South gambled that they can beat the American
North. They lost, and the only prize they got were millions of
freed black slaves and counting. The American North grabbed the
American West including Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the
universe.
Las Vegas is the nirvana of quick money, and the place to lose
your conscience legally. The problem with money is, it lacks
conscience and the jackpot goes to the gambler because of kinship.
Las Vegas made gambling so much fun that governments in the planet
copied it as a revenue source. Gambling grew to a whole new
industry; it made it to the GDP.
The line between investing and gambling is blurred, and the line
between taxation and gambling is gone. Gambling is not a sin. In
fact, it’s not even counted as one of the deadly seven sins. In
case you forgot, they are: evil thoughts, murder, adultery,
fornication, thievery, false witness and railings. Unless you
count gambling as larceny, then, it is a sin.
Does it mean we are apathetic about jueteng? Absolutely not. We
should treat jueteng and the bad things that come with it as a
violation of the penal code, the law, and the statutes.
There is a law against money laundering – RA 9160
There is a law against bribery of public officials – Article
210-211 of the Penal Code
There is a law for plunder–RA 7080
There is a law for corrupt practices – RA 3019
There is a law against income tax evasion – RA 9337
There is a law against not paying EVAT – RG 16-2005
You can throw legal books on the culprits: collectors, capitalist,
municipal officials on the take, policemen on the take, governors
on the take, congressmen and senators on the take, and God forbid,
the President on the take. That’s more effective than reading the
Canon Book.
If the police, military and judiciary can’t enforce these laws,
then we should change the name of our country to Las Jueteng. The
citizens will be called Juets, there’s a nice French sound to it.
Manny Ilao
Vancouver, Canada
