Jueteng whistle-blower Sandra Cam seeks police protection

Self-confessed bagwoman Sandra Cam on Monday requested police protection following the killing of a fellow whistle-blower and witness in the Senate investigation into a payola scam in 2005. In a radio interview, Cam said she initially requested the police in Masbate province for security, but she was told to send the request through the Commission on Elections (Comelec) because of the election period. “I asked for temporary security, but up to now the police have not acted on my request supposedly because they are under the Comelec. It’s fine with me, but I find my situation very difficult," Cam said in Filipino in an interview on dzXL radio. Cam expressed her security concerns following the killing of Wilfredo “Boy" Mayor, who testified before the Senate in 2005 that members of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s family were allegedly getting payoffs from jueteng, a multi-billion peso illegal numbers game. The 55-year-old Mayor was gunned down Sunday morning in Pasay City. He was declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital. Cam said she is currently running a school in Cavite but she often goes to Masbate, one of the provinces that has been previously tagged as a poll hotspot because of election-related violence and the presence of partisan private armed groups there. In a separate interview on dzXL, Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesman Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina said all requests for security must be coursed through the Comelec. "All of us in the PNP are under the Comelec when it comes to security detail. Even members of the police who are part of security details, including firearms, are subject to Comelec approval)," Espina said. He added that the only thing he can do is to forward Cam's request to PNP units in the provinces where she is seeking protection. Cam said she has talked to Comelec Commissioner Lucenito Tagle about her security concerns, but was told she had to go through the usual procedures for such requests. "Pero emergency ito. Ako ay babae, walang kasama kundi aking driver. Kung may mangyari at least may makaputok pabalik (My case is an emergency. I am a woman and have no companion when I travel except my driver. If something happens, at least there will be someone who can fight back)," she said. Mayor’s death During the Senate investigation in 2005, Cam testified that she collected payoffs from jueteng lords and delivered them to Presidential son and Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey" Arroyo and Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio “Iggy" Arroyo, brother of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo. Both men denied the accusation. In a separate testimony, Mayor implicated the husband of President Arroyo and other government officials in the popular numbers game. The First Gentleman has also denied the allegations. The inquiry was conducted by the committee on public order and the committee on games and amusement formerly chaired by Senator Manuel “Manny" Villar Jr. and Senator Manuel “Lito" Lapid, respectively. Lapid is a supporter of the Arroyo administration and is currently seeking reelection as senator, while Villar is the presidential bet of the Nacionalista Party in the 2010 elections. The inquiry went nowhere after two witnesses, Richard Garcia and Demosthenes Abraham Riva, retracted their testimonies linking the Arroyos to the jueteng scandal. Garcia and Riva said opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson "coached" them into saying that the Arroyos received payola from jueteng operations. Mayor and Cam confessed their involvement in the gambling racket but have since become advocates of an anti-gambling group founded by retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz. Both of them are members of the Whistle-blowers Association, a group of witnesses who have testified in several investigations on various scandals that have hounded the Arroyo administration. - Sophia Dedace/YA, GMANews.TV