Fresh accusations against Mike and Mikey

Two more witnesses yesterday levelled accusations against Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo and his Congressman son Juan Miguel "Mikey", that they benefited from an illegal lottery.

"The First Gentleman had given the blessing for 'jueteng' operations to continue in the Bicol region," Demosthenes Abraham Riva told members of the Senate committees on gaming and public order which is holding a joint inquiry on the involvement of certain public officials and members of President Gloria Arroyo's family in the illegal numbers game.

During the inquest, Riva claimed to be an assistant to Mario Espinosa, the President's Special Assistance on Bicol Affairs.

Another witness by Archbishop Oscar Cruz, whose accusations led to the ongoing Senate investigation, introduced himself as a bagman for a police official.

Witness Richard Garcia, said it was the young Arroyo, whom he referred to as the "Lion King", who sent them to Central Luzon to collect jueteng payoffs.

Garcia said he testified because "I could not stomach the conspiracy and the manner in which our policemen are being debased."

He said local officials used the police bureaucracy as "backbone" for the popular illegal numbers game.

Both Gacia and Riva denied reports published by Philippine newspapers that they are drug dependents.

Riva, who said Espinosa was his neighbour in Legaspi City, said he went to the National Bureau of Investigation with his testimony last year but decided to go public due to the bishop, referring to Cruz, a bishop in the diocese of Lingayen in northern Philippines who brought him and the other jueteng witnesses to the Senate.

Last week, Cruz surprised the Senate when he brought in a self-confessed jueteng syndicate leader Wilfredo Mayor as a witness.

Mayor linked Mike and Mikey and several other government officials to the jueteng controversy and claimed that the President's son receives at least P600,000 (Dh37,500) a month in payoffs from illegal lottery syndicates.