Beware of the dugo-dugo gang

I wish PLDT would bring back its Caller ID ad on TV – the one wherein a bunch of dugo-dugo/budol-budol guys fail to trick an alert and quick-thinking maid named Inday into turning over to them the amo’s pieces of jewelry because Ma’am supposedly met an accident and needs money for the hospitalization.

Of course, with the proliferation of pre-paid phone cards, it may be difficult to trace the identity of the dugo-dugo gang members. But what’s important is that there is a constant reminder to our helpers at home (and what better way to remind them than through television) about the existence of the dugo-dugo/budol-budol gang.

I’m sorry, but I cannot give you the etymological definition of dugo-dugo and budol-budol. But I do know this type of modus operandi already existed as early as the ’60s – when only half of Metro Manila (then known as Greater Manila Area) had telephone lines.

Recently, I had a weekend get-together with some of my friends and I was deeply saddened to find out that the wife of one of them – no thanks to their maid – fell victim to this scam.

This friend and his doctor-wife have been married for only three years and are still childless. They live in a house in Marikina with their 17-year-old maid whom they send to school (she’s in the secondary level).

At night, the doctora patiently tutors the housemaid on History, Mathematics and English. She failed to teach her one important lesson though: The hard facts of life – that there are good and bad people in this world.

On the day the scam happened, my friend went on a business trip to South Africa. The doctor-wife, meanwhile, went on with her usual routine and made the rounds of her various clinics in Metro Manila. She actually finished work early that day and decided to do one good deed. She went on a one-woman medical mission to a squatter colony in Pasay and gave free consultations to the indigent patients there.

Unfortunately, it sometimes doesn’t pay to be good. While there she was doing charity work for the poor, some unscrupulous people were being uncharitable to her.

It was early in the evening when the phone in her house rang. The maid who was in the kitchen cooking supper – chicken and pork adobo – rushed to the living room to get the phone. At the other end of the line was a female voice who identified herself as the cousin of "Sir." "But Sir is not home. He left for some African country this morning," the maid volunteered. "Ma’am isn’t home either. She’s still at work." End of conversation.

A few minutes later, the phone rang again. At the other end of the line this time was a male voice. Francis. Or someone pretending to be Francis. "Huwag kang mabibigla," he began. "Si Ma’am mo, nakabangga. Magdala ka ng pera. Aaregluhin natin ’yung nabangga niya.

The maid – and this was the first and last time she must have used her brains during the entire exercise – demanded that the phone be given to Ma’am. A female voice did come to the phone. But the voice was muffled. Totally unrecognizable. "Si Ma’am ba ’yon?" asked the maid. "Si Ma’am mo ’yon," answered the male voice. "Pero nabungi na ang mga ngipin niya sa aksidente kaya hindi mo siya maintindihan."

Then, came the instructions: Go up to the master bedroom and get all of Ma’am’s pieces of jewelry from the drawer. The maid, as per instruction, went up to the second floor bedroom only to find the drawers locked. "Naka-kandado ang drawer," she told the man on the other end of the line. "Sipain mo na!" came the instruction. "At saka ’yung dollars kunin mo," ordered the man on the phone. "Maraming dollars diyan." (The couple never kept dollars at home.)

The maid obeyed as instructed and returned to the phone with the good news that she found two jewelry boxes. Good. Ma’am will be very pleased – said the man on the phone. For the final instruction: Go to the Araneta Coliseum and meet us in front of Starbucks. Ma’am will also be there waiting for you.

The maid, without even bothering to change, hurriedly took two jeepney rides and went to the appointed place. Ma’am, of course, wasn’t there. The maid was instead met by a stocky man who instructed her to follow him two blocks – obviously to make sure that they weren’t being trailed by the police.

When the maid finally handed the two jewelry boxes to this stocky man, she was given her final instruction: Go back to the front of Starbucks. Ma’am will meet you there.

The maid waited, of course. And waited. And waited. At 1 a.m., tired, hungry and sleepy, she decided to throw in the towel and went back home to Marikina – only to find Ma’am waiting for her there in one piece. Not a single tooth was missing. Only several pieces of heirloom jewelry.

With the dugo-dugo/budol-budol gang still operating, media perhaps should once more institute a public information campaign to warn members of our households against these con artists. Local sitcoms perhaps can do an episode on this. Or this plot may be injected into our soap operas like Sana Ikaw Na Nga, Sa Dulo ng Walang Hanggan, etc. Why not turn Ina (the character played by Kristine Hermosa in Pangako sa Iyo) into a housemaid once again and make her a victim of the budol-budol gang? The possibilities are endless. But media should act fast before all of us are bled dry by the members of this notorious dugo-dugo gang.