NOTE: THIS STORY WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE BOHOL CHRONICLE’S SUNDAY PRINT EDITION.

The continued proliferation of illegal Swertres in the province is due to the protection ring extended by politicians.

This was the declaration made by former Vice Gov. Julius Herrera who refused to name names after he pointed out the almost 100% absence of apprehensions of persons behind the multi-million swertres operations in the province.

He brought to the attention of the public that unlike in the massive crackdown on drugs, there is none in the illegal numbers game.

Herrera was surprised why Boholanos are not up against the proliferation of the “yellow” lotto outlets spread in almost all of the more than 1,000 barangays in the province.

He said that while there are the legal counters, many more are engaged in the illegal swertres competing in a way with the legal lotto outlets.

“Why are the local officials not lifting a finger to minimize the illegal swertres?” Herrera questioned.

He estimated that the province’s illegal lotto operations could easily gross  P3 to P5 million daily.

With the massive illegal swertres operations in the province, it is “surprising why there are very few apprehensions on illegal swertres,” Herrera questioned.

A Davao-based group is allegedly running the lotto operations here, Herrera said.

WHERE’S THE INTELLIGENCE FUND?

Herrera likewise questioned the proliferation of investment scams in the province.

He was surprised to hear the millions of pesos raked by illegal scams operating in the province, both the recently exposed REPA Scam and FOREX investment.

He said that some Capitol luminaries as well as town executives were mentioned as among those who participated in the “marketing” of the investment scams.

In fact, the reason why many succumb to the scam was because big politicians were among the investors which caused the immediate trust and confidence of the ordinary residents who were the easy victims of this “too good to be true” investment ploy.

Herrera said some P80 million is budgeted for the intelligence fund by the provincial government which could be used to curb these illegal investments.

With the availability of such funds, Herrera finds no reason why the provincial leadership could not hire trained manpower to do the gathering of data and information which can be used to apprehend suspects behind this investment scam.