Manila’s elite, the Davao Group, and COVID-19

In hushed but angry voices, some of the country’s businessmen expressed frustration over the government’s handling of the pandemic and the jaw-dropping web of questionable COVID-19-related supply deals involving the President’s men.

I felt this brewing sentiment after having dinner recently with the chairman of a listed company; after a long talk with a government contractor; an exchange of messages with a director of several listed companies; a chat with a tycoon who chairs a listed business empire; and many other conversations.

They are tired and can’t wait for the pandemic – and this administration – to end.

Of course not every businessman feels the same way.  But while some are still happy with this administration, many are heaving heavy sighs of frustration.

‘A cast of aliases’

They especially detest the people surrounding the President, specifically the men and women of the Philippines’ D.C. – as in Davao City – because of “brazen corruption” and “crass business ways.”

“The Davao Group should just go back to Davao and stay there!” says one frustrated billionaire businessman.

“They are wreaking havoc here,” he says.

But who really comprises the Davao Group? Perhaps, they are everyone and anyone who are either close to the President or are name-dropping Duterte to get extraordinary favors from the government.

We know some of them as a cast of wheeler dealers with aliases – “Tita Nanie,” “Jojo,” “Jack,” “S,” and “M,” as a Senate investigation revealed years ago.

Or maybe, they are several factions of local businessmen and wannabe influence peddlers with two things in common – Duterte and Davao.

Whoever they are, they’re giving Manila’s elite a run for their money. Never have Manila-based businessmen been so disrupted by a President’s inner circle.

Come to think of it, the same may be said of the Davao Group.

Perhaps before 2016, they made money only from whatever bounty Davao has – durian, mangosteen, pomelos, inasal or what-have-you.

Now, with wild abandon, they are raking in billions of pesos from government supply contracts, offshore gaming, e-sabong, smuggling, reclamation projects, etc.

‘Blood money’

One government contractor says that’s not really the worst of it.

It’s the fact that this is happening at a time when the country is grappling with a global health pandemic.

“People are sick and they are messing with money supposedly for COVID-19 response,” says the businessman.

“That’s blood money!” he says.

There’s just too much corruption now, he attests, although he adds that many of the Davao guys have been bulldozing their way through the bureaucracy long before the pandemic struck, displacing the usual businessmen.

From Daang Matuwid to the Davao way

Some of Manila’s businessmen, of course, may have forgotten that they enabled this administration early on, as they longed for a change from the previous administration’s almost paralyzing ‘Daang Matuwid.’

Businessmen are businessmen. They throw their support to every administration in the hope of getting the same support, too. They love our presidents and the presidents love them until the love affair ends.

In fact, some of them were fixtures in Davao during the campaign for the 2016 elections, placing their bets on Duterte and hoping he would do better than his predecessor.

But surprise, surprise! The unorthodox President broke every “rule” in the “president-businessmen relationship” playbook, which for decades worked well for Manila’s oligarchs.

He rained on the parade of many of Manila’s elite, knocking them off their feet.

He shelved projects, rescinded contracts without due process, and in his trademark hateful self, shamed tycoons in his public speeches as he vowed early on to “destroy the oligarchs,” another of his many populist promises. But he only ended up creating a new breed of cronies from his kingdom down south.

The Davao guys have since been expanding their reach throughout the country, no longer content with their provincial lives and small-time deals.

Now, they have sprawling homes in posh gated villages and units in towering condominiums with coveted addresses here in Metro Manila, places which, for the longest time, belonged only to Manila’s old rich. There’s one member of the mafia renting a home in that uber exclusive residential enclave for roughly P1 million a month.

And because they also want to play in the playgrounds of Manila’s richest, members of the Davao Group are also into club shares and luxury yachts; one of them acquired a $6 million yacht at the height of the pandemic.

Golden age

Indeed, this might well be called the golden age of the Davao Group, and unfortunately for Manila’s businessmen, this group from the south has made the echelons of power a little too crowded.

This powerful cabal is difficult to penetrate, too, I heard. They’ve been circling the wagons since day one.

Perhaps this is where the strength of this administration lies, in the homogeneity of the men and women who are part of it.

Will the Davao Group’s heyday continue for another six years? Maybe, maybe not.

It all depends on the outcome of next year’s elections. But whichever side you’re sitting on, don’t hold your breath.

Perhaps, another president will be elected and another group will emerge, and another chapter will unfold in this bewildering story of our topsy-turvy country.

Iris Gonzales’ email address is [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at eyes-gonzales.com