Terror at Alabang Town Center

At around 5 p.m. on Thursday (Oct. 6, 2005) at Starbucks in Alabang Town Center, Spybiz Eye-Spies saw this mestizo-looking, medium-built man in his late fifties accompanied by three bodyguards going ballistic and raising a ruckus. The man apparently lost his cellphone. A young man in his twenties also happened to be in Starbucks at the time, and this man started accusing him of stealing his cellphone. The three bodyguards conducted a body search on the hapless young man in front of everyone. They then brought him inside the bathroom and beat him up. Despite the young man’s pleas, the security guards at the Alabang Town Center did not do anything, not even lift a finger to stop the beating. Even assuming that the young man was guilty, these thugs do not have the right to bodily search a person, much more beat him up. How can something like this happen in pleno publico in a supposedly first class mall? In a time of heightened terror alert, how was this man able to bring in three bodyguards into the mall in the first place? Alabang Town Center’s security must answer these questions.

The postman strikes again

Nine-year-old Enzo Feliciano wrote SA Maguire asking for help. According to the boy, an uncle residing in the US sent him a card with $10 inserted as a birthday gift and reward for getting honor merit in school. Enzo was heartbroken when he opened the card and discovered that the money was missing. "My dad said that the letter was opened and the money was taken by the mailman and closed the letter again. Can you help me?" the boy wrote. Little boy, we’re sorry to say that in the Philippines, mail theft and package pilferage have always been a perennial problem. The privatization of the postal system in 1993 was supposed to have addressed this problem. However, PhilPost seems to still be completely inutile. Numerous victims have complained and asked the post office to trace the culprits but the usual useless standard reply was that it was "impossible to trace." PhilPost boasts of having the most extensive domestic distribution and delivery network, and that it is committed to provide quality postal service to customers. Well, the easiest way to do this is to make sure packages and letters get delivered. Second, don’t give cop out answers. Investigate the complaints and charge these thieving mailmen with qualified theft under Article 310 of the Revised Penal Code. While a postal money order is the safer choice, many people who just want to send a token amount find the process too tedious and unnecessary. A bit of advice: Never put money in your mail, because postal workers seem to have X-ray eyes and will not hesitate to pilfer the $10 you inserted. Have a heart Postmaster-General Diomedio Villanueva and address this matter fast. In the meantime, Enzo has been appointed as our Spy-Kid.

Tampered Fort Bonifacio gas pumps

Rumors of coups and military takeovers have not stopped buzzing, but authorities shouldn’t be surprised to discover that the most likely cause would not be politics but – gasoline. Spybiz informants got wind of increased grumbling from men in uniform because of suspected tampering in the gas pumps inside Fort Bonifacio in Makati. The acceptable discrepancy for a gas pump is less than 10 milliliters for every 10 liters of fuel, but there is strong suspicion that the discrepancy could be much more because gas dials barely lift for a 10-liter fill up. Sources reported that as much as three liters may be lost for every 10 liters. An estimated 2,000 vehicles fill up for diesel and premium gasoline at the Fort Bonifacio gas dam. At an estimated price of P33 per liter for diesel and P35 per liter for premium, that’s still a cool P204,000 unaccounted for in one day. Sources claim that "higher ups" may know about this, as it is very unlikely that the enlisted personnel manning the gas dam are the brains behind the scam. Wonder what Army chief General Hermogenes Esperon has to say about this.

Spy tidbiz: It takes just one bad D.C. apple

Our Washington, D.C. Ear-Spies reported that the White House espionage case has put Filipinos in bad light again. It would have been understandable if the classified documents filched by Aragoncillo weren’t common knowledge. But he could simply have clipped newspaper accounts to avoid all this trouble. Nevertheless, mere possession of any classified document is a serious crime in the United States. As a result, the security clearances of Filipinos working at the White House and those who have intelligence careers have been seriously jeopardized. A classic case of one bad apple spoiling the good ones.

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