THE Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) has shown strong determination to help eradicate all illegal gambling activities in Pangasinan when it destroyed in public 11 video gambling machines seized from various parts of the province.

Senior Inspector Marvin Bolabola, chief of the CIDG in the Ilocos region, motored all the way to Pangasinan from San Fernando City, La Union to spearhead the destruction of the illegal video gambling machines.

“The strategy is, we confiscate these gambling machines, then destroy these immediately to prevent any recycling,” Bolabola said.

He and Dagupan City Legal Officer George Mejia, representing Mayor Alipio Fernandez, used axes to crush the video gambling machine to pieces.

Twenty-four other video gambling machines were destroyed in public in Dagupan City just at the start of the school year as these are being patronized by students and pupils even during school days.

Bolabola said they were acting on the instruction of CIDG Director Edgardo Doromal to wage renewed war against video gambling machines due to reports that there are about 10,000 video or slot machines in Pangasinan.

Most of these units, the report stated are spread in one city and four towns, namely Dagupan City, Mangatarem, Tayug, Calasiao and Anda.

“Although these areas are far from each other, we started out operations by directing CIDG Police Provincial Director Manuel Velasco to immediately implement the instruction of higher headquarters,” he said.

There are personalities and aliases mentioned in the report but we are verifying who are these as the CIDG can not charge persons just by their aliases, Bolabola said.