BY ALL MEANS, arrest the gamblers.
Arrest the tambay playing cara y cruz on the sidewalk. The kargador flicking coins during break time. The retired factory worker shuffling cards under a mango tree. Do it in the name of peace and order. Report the arrests. Count the coins seized—₱164,080 in all. Announce, proudly, that 1,090 souls were rounded up in just three months in Quezon City alone. Call it a success. Call it progress.
But really, who’s winning here?
Certainly not the jail who now have to feed, clothe, and detain these “criminals” at ₱85 a head per day (70 for food and 15 for medicines).
Not the justice system, already creaking under the weight of overcrowded jails and snail-paced courts. Not the families of the detained, who lose breadwinners, however modest their wagers. And definitely not the gamblers themselves, now branded as criminals, now exposed to prison gangs like Batang City Jail and Bahala Na Gang, now inducted into a real underworld far worse than anything they saw on the streets.
‘The same presidential decree used to jail these street gamblers is almost never used against the financiers who run the games. It is the poor who get caught; the syndicates remain invisible. Why? Because the law has eyes—but only for the powerless.’
UNWAVERING DEDICATION
The Police may call it “unwavering dedication.” But it is more accurately described as flailing. As casting a net wide enough to catch the weak and poor, but conveniently missing the big fish. It is a performance of order, not its pursuit.
Because, let’s be honest, these arrests are not about crime control. They’re about optics. Numbers. Metrics. Headlines. Pogi points. The Routine Activity Theory tells us crime happens when opportunity and motive meet without guardians around. But what happens when the guardians themselves misunderstand their role? When they become enforcers of poverty, rather than protectors of peace?
You don’t need a PhD in criminology to know what drives street gambling: boredom, desperation, the need to escape. Tong-its and cara y cruz are not vices—they are symptoms. Of broken systems. Of a lack of parks and recreation centers. Of neighborhoods without playgrounds but with plenty of police checkpoints. Strain Theory already told us this: when legitimate paths are blocked, people take the crooked ones. Especially when the straight ones are guarded by toll gates.
SPELL HYPOCRISY
And yet, we criminalize these small-time bets while building palaces for the rich to gamble in.
Casinos sparkle under government permits. POGOs operate under the radar. We tax their winnings and thank them for the revenue. But catch someone tossing coins in the gutter, and we slap them with a criminal case and ₱36,000 bail. Can you spell hypocrisy?
The law, it seems, is less about justice and more about class. It protects the few, punishes the many. The same presidential decree (PD1602) used to jail these street gamblers is almost never used against the financiers who run the games. It is the poor who get caught; the syndicates remain invisible. Why? Because the law has eyes—but only for the powerless.
Worse, the very system used to enforce the law is rotting. Detainees whisper stories of cops demanding “bail money” under the table. Of charges dropped for a fee. Of extortion masked as enforcement. This, too, is gambling—but the stakes are higher, and the house always wins.
What’s the alternative? We don’t need more jails; we need more basketball courts. We don’t need more arrests; we need more opportunities. Instead of quotas for collaring offenders, why not metrics for conflict mediation, community assistance, and youth engagement? Instead of criminal records, why not warnings, citations, or community service? Not every misstep deserves a cell.
HOUSE ALWAYS WINS
The PNP could learn a thing or two from community-oriented policing. From treating citizens not as suspects but as partners. From being visible not just during raids, but during festivals, clean-up drives, or even just quiet afternoons in barangay halls. Trust, after all, is not seized — it’s built.
But trust cannot grow in soil watered with fear and hypocrisy. As long as the law targets the poor and pampers the powerful, peace and order will remain a fantasy.
Arrest the gamblers, yes. But be ready to lose more than you gain.
Because in this game of justice, the way we’re playing it?
The house always wins.
And the people always lose.
(Editor’s Note: Dr. Raymund E. Narag is an associate professor at the Criminology and Criminal Justice Department at the Southern Illinois University. He had his undergraduate courses at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.)
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