Bust ‘swertres’ syndicate, financier dares police

An underground financier of “swertres” challenged police officials in the province to dismantle the “unholy alliance” of scalawag policemen and a syndicate of local gambling lords to completely put a stop to the illegal numbers game.

The financier, who agreed to be interviewed on condition of anonymity, said that despite pronouncements by police officers to completely put a stop to “swertres”, the illegal numbers game continues to flourish in Bohol because of this alleged “syndicate” that has compromised ranking policemen accepting pay-offs in the form of a regular “protection racket”.

The alleged syndicate of financiers, has gotten bolder in their operations as their runners, ushers and coordinators are virtually “untouchable” and no longer apprehended, as long as they keep remitting 10-percent of their daily proceeds to “tong” collectors representing scalawag policemen.

The financier said he is willing to terminate his own network of “swertres” operators if the police command in the province would crush this “syndicate”, by apprehending their coordinators, ushers and seize bets that would definitely stop their operation.

According to the financier, P/SSupt. Constantino Barot Jr., provincial police director, is supposedly aware of the existence of the gambling syndicate but has turned a blind eye on their “unholy alliance” with some of his men.

This “unholy alliance” between scalawag cops and the local “swertres” lords is apparently the reason for the low success rate in recent months of the anti “swetres” campaign waged not only by the Bohol PNP but by the entire regional police command, according to the financier.

After a series of province-wide raids against “swertres” operators in the later months of 2011, financiers were observed to be laying low for a few weeks but were back to their usual operation after reportedly coming to terms with police officials working out a “sharing scheme” in exchange for protection or tip offs on impending police raids targeting the network of illegal numbers game operators of the “syndicate”.

The financier said, if SSupt. Barot is serious in his campaign to eradicate “swertres” in the province, he should explicitly place this “syndicate” on top of his order of battle.

It may be recalled that Barot has denied any knowledge of police protecting “swertres” financiers as he has not heard anyone from the ranks of the Bohol PNP to spare and set free arrested runners, bet collectors or coordinators.