Small time, big time

Egay Uy .

THE Cagayan de Oro City Police Office leadership should look into this matter seriously. There are reports of hantak gambling operations in Agora, Cogon, and Carmen, and elsewhere in the city. Of these, two have recently been “raided,” both at the instance of the inspection team of the Regulatory and Complaint Board.

Several weeks ago, the RCB inspection team “chanced upon” a hantak operation while passing through the Agora in Lapasan en route to a night inspection routine. The RCB Team promptly informed the Agora police station, and arrests were effected of those who were caught doing hantak.  We were later informed that cases of violating anti-gambling laws were filed against at least six suspects.

Just a week ago, the same RCB inspection team again chanced upon a hantak operation in Barangay Carmen.  The RCB team was supposed to be conducting inspections in that area of internet cafes and other businesses that fall under the RCB jurisdiction. It could have been an uneventful evening.

In similar token, the same RCB team informed the Carmen police station about the hantak operation. At that time, only one police officer was present in the station because reportedly the others were conducting an operation elsewhere.

There was reportedly a noticeable reluctance on the part of the officer-on-desk which prompted the RCB inspection team leader, Ton Resma, to call our idol, Supt. Mardi Hortillosa upon whose intercession the reported gambling joint was raided.

Hantak may just be a drop in the bucket or small-time compared to other forms of gambling (illegal swertres, illegal mahjong, illegal cockfights, and the like) but it is still illegal.  What makes matters worse is that the hantak operations were reported to have been in existence since years ago. They did not sprout there overnight for the police not to notice.

I chose not to believe this but I was told, while I was in the traffic office, that some police officers were on the take.  While no evidence or proof was presented, one report insinuated that a police patrol car regularly dropped by the hantak operation area in Cogon market to allegedly collect a share in the take.

I had no means of verifying this then even as I was told to just to go the area by three o’clock in the afternoon to see for myself, but I chose not to. Let me just throw this to the Cocpo leadership to check. It’s their job anyway.

What bugs me now and has brought back to mind the reports I received, is the fact that while the hantak joints have been in operation for quite some time already, the attention of the police office concerned had to be called by the RCB inspection team before an action was taken.

If this small-time gambling operation of hantak cannot be cleaned up, then it will be difficult for me to believe that the anti-gambling operation will succeed.