SWERTRES, the illegal numbers game shivered and then breathed its last Tuesday after assistant provincial director, police superintendent Ernesto Agas found the chance to get his hands into it. This illegal numbers game came as a throwback of the three number combination drawn nightly by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. Sold at a peso bets, swertres has also morphed from the P10 bets fielded at PCSO betting stations. Instead however of remitting the bet money to the PCSO, small town swertres operators pocket the money while luring more bettors of P450 per share winning take.

With Police Senior Superintendent Arturo Evangelista now in Manila , the burden of the one-month ultimatum to fire the coup de grace for swertres rested in Supt. Agas' shoulders. Himself an action man, Supt. Agas called for a command conference of Bohol 's chief of police and trickled the requiem order for the game of luck, just like in his old city police days. Pressing action and immediate results, Supt. Agas, while wielding Senior Supt. Arturo Evangelista's briefing wand, lost no time in demanding the immediate elimination of swertres. The one-month ultimatum given to Senior Superintendent Evangelista came after a terse warning given by Gov. Erico Aumentado to him to bag the big fish in Carmen. This happened during a peace and order council meeting in Bien Unido weeks ago.

From the order, chiefs of police flowed into their areas of responsibility and flushed out mopping up operations. In their respective assignments, the chiefs of police gathered all financiers, coordinators and ushers and warned them about the serious saturation drive to finally nail the lid in eliminating swertres. By Tuesday, reports from the field indicated that swertes luck has ran out. It was not determined however if the lull was just temporary while operators buried in underground shelters.

During the lull, swertres' legitimate equivalent, the three combination bets accepted in PCSO lotto outlets enjoyed brisk sales. An ocular inspection in almost all lotto outlets in this city showed long queues of bettors. These were noted since early afternoon until about 8:00 last night. Long queues in lotto outlets were never like this before, noted outlet franchisees. It may also indicate that indeed swertres financiers decided to lie low in deference to the police crackdown.