Press Release
January 12, 2013

KOKO ASKS PCSO TO INVESTIGATE
JUETENG LINK IN QUEZON SHOOTOUT

Senator Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III, PDP Laban President, today asks Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to conduct a thorough investigation of the reported link between jueteng, the illegal numbers game, and the recent killing of 13 people in what police claimed was a shootout in Atimonan, Quezon.

Pimentel, chairman of the Senate Committee on Games and Amusement, said that the leadership of the Philippine National Police should also explain why alleged jueteng/STL operator in Batangas and Laguna Victorino "Vic Siman" Atienza Jr. was with the group that included a high-ranking police officer and two soldiers in the two-car convoy that allegedly engaged those manning a police checkpoint in a shootout.

"There are too many loose ends in the accounts of the alleged shootout. But what I'm interested in most of all is the report that the whole incident is the offshoot of a turf war for control of the illegal numbers game in the area," Pimentel said.

"Why was an alleged jueteng operator in the same vehicle convoy as a high-ranking police officer? Was he in their custody? It is that kind of company that the concerned police officers seem to keep that fuels belief by the public that some law enforcers give protection to jueteng operators.

"If the PNP leadership wants to eliminate jueteng, then they should go all-out against this illegal form of gambling wherever it occurs, arrest jueteng operators and file charges against them in court," Pimentel said.

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