Jueteng By Ronald Roy COMMENT 09/23/2010

Jueteng
By Ronald Roy

COMMENT

09/23/2010
Should the kitchen knife be banned? Obviously not, otherwise we could be a society of people reeling sick from ill-cooked meals. And it should not even matter if the instrument has features in numerous homicides. So, what can be done to at least reduce the loss of innocent lives? Catch the culprits and send them to jail, simple.

Not only would the knife-wielding malefactors be held accountable, but others as well; like anyone who may have purposely or carelessly left a carver within the reach of a child. The point is: it is not the knife per se that is condemnable, but the person who mishandles or abuses it. On this proposition is premised the ensuing discussion on the illegal numbers game called jueteng.

Jueteng is back in the news, reportedly at a much worse state than ever. It has long been assailed as a criminal enterprise so immoral and widespread that only political will can stamp it out of our lives. In partially agreeing, I would like to propose a tactical approach to the problem by acknowledging the numbers game as an alarmingly extensive social cancer. For it is only in this light that we can begin to recognize the imperative for a political resolve to eradicate it.

Take it from former President Joseph Estrada, whose gray-haired wisdom gives probably the most cogent suggestion on the matter: Legalize jueteng. “Think about it,” he once told me. To this day, President Estrada staunchly advocates its legalization..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100923com5.html