DRUGS AND GAMBLING

Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal warned of drug money making an
impact on the coming barangay and youth elections. He feared that drug
lords' money would ensure the election of candidates friendly to the drugs
trade.

Aside from drugs money, resources from illegal gambling can have the same
effect. At least on some politicians or wannabe politicians.

"Illegal drugs suck out the very lifeblood of our nation, deaden
consciences and bring criminality to abysmal depths," the Cardinal said.

The prevalence of jueteng carries with it the same range of consequences
that suck out the marrow from the country's dreams for genuine maturity=
and genuine development.

Indeed, as Cardinal Vidal states, the fight against "narco-politics" is a
"fight for the soul of our nation." There can be no standing by the
sidelines when some 1.8 million people take shabu and 2.64 million are
addicted to marijuana. This costly P65-billion-a-year industry will require
a formidable opponent.

The same can be said of the illegal gambling scourge. Not long ago, the
President of the Philippines was ousted for, among others, his links to
jueteng. Remember how the impeachment procedure against then president
Estrada started?

Two years ago, jueteng squealer Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis Singson started the
ball rolling on Estrada with revelations of jueteng money funding the
presidency. Then the term "jueteng-gate" was introduced to the Philippine
vocabulary.

How we were enthralled with accounts of P484 million from jueteng lords
going to Estrada, of more money reaching the pockets of other government
officials, of gambling money in effect defining public policy.

The charges and counter-charges that followed in the path of "jueteng-gate
" finally led to the first call, given by Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal
Sin, for then president Estrada to step down. Cardinal Sin, that time, said
Estrada has lost his moral ascendancy to govern. That call by Sin was
described as the Church's rightful response to the signs of the times.

It was not all Estrada only. The "smoking gun" presented by Singson
revealed more in the form of a ledger containing the amounts and names of
government officials who received jueteng money. Among them were Sens. John
H. Osmena and Tessie Aquino-Oreta.

The paper trail to identify financial donors and recipients in the
Philippine "narco-politics" setting may yet result in the ouster of a
government official. The trail for jueteng-backed government officials, on
the other hand, has had significant initial results.

Cardinal Vidal points to others signs as well like children not getting
spared from the illegal drugs menace, 800,000 Filipinos aged seven to 21
being in danger of becoming addicts, and six to seven of every 10 heinous
crimes in the country being linked to illegal drugs.

Cardinal Sin, in pointing to illegal gambling as a national plague, said
the lure of fast money prevalent in the countrysides and in the metropolis
sets aside the principles of enterprise and hard work that are the
foundations of a developing nation.

Drugs and gambling. They both present false hopes to people desperate for
some upliftment, never mind if the high is temporary, the stakes costlier
and the aftereffects permanent.