Brother’s keeper?

Because of the impunity, the numbers and the noise, the Duterte administration can no longer ignore or pass on the responsibility of dealing with the “extrajudicial disappearance” and probable murder of 29 sabungeros or cockfighters. The media won’t let go of the story because hundreds of family members won’t give up on their missing loved ones and have started to find their voice and courage to cry out for justice. The gangsters behind the disappearances remind me of Cain, the first murderer in human history who killed his own brother and when GOD asked him, “Where is your brother Abel?” Cain had the audacity to tell GOD: “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” But the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen – your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground!” The way media and public pressure have been slowly but surely building up, I am convinced that the cries of the 29 missing men along with the tears and voices of their families have passed through Heaven’s door.

At first glance, it would seem that the wheels of justice are rolling as the Commission on Human Rights and the Department of Justice have gotten involved alongside the Senate, the PNP-CIDG and the NBI. I am cautiously optimistic about the matter and hopeful that a real honest-to-goodness investigation is conducted that results in the guilty parties being found and prosecuted. We need to be cautious in our optimism though, because other sources have advised me that the business end of this problem involves hundreds of millions of pesos, which explains why the guilty parties can be so audacious and abduct 29 people with such impunity and in broad daylight. It strongly suggests that they are confident that they are untouchable or believe that they have the money and power to corrupt people in every area of government.

A veteran government official familiar with criminality and corruption I spoke with suggested that we pay attention to details and statements made on the case. A couple of officials and officers have already issued speculation that the missing persons were probably abducted by their own crew due to “double cross.” The official told me that as far as police work goes, investigators or officials handling the case should not make any public statements or speculate on the case, especially since they don’t have any real leads, witnesses or actual persons of interest. Such unsubstantiated statements could discourage possible witnesses from coming out, could mislead or misdirect the investigation or jeopardize the impartial and scientific police work that professional investigators are doing.

My source was obviously reacting to the suggestion made by the CIDG that the case might be the result of a double cross over money, which is certainly possible but debunked by family members who went in front of the camera to state that the timelines or the months in between batches of disappearance, the victims’ origins or residences (from Bulacan, Tanay, Rizal and Laguna) and the difference in status of various “victims” (handler, driver vs operator) indicated that the batches had nothing to do with each other. The only thing they had in common was that they all competed at derbies of one particular cockpit operator and that the actual fighters had reputations of being “Manyonyopes” or fight fixers, except for the one guy who was abducted in his upscale home after collecting several million pesos for online bets allegedly earned from a fake or cloned account.

Someone also suggested that the disappearances may be the work of “competitors” or enemies of the operator of the cockpits where the 29 individuals were last seen alive. Like any sensational crime involving many missing people connected to millions of pesos lost, there will be many suspects. In a recent interview, we asked the official spokesperson of the PNP, Police Colonel Jean Fajardo, regarding the grenade throwing incidents at a cockpit in Manila to know if it was a legitimate bombing attempt or attack against the cockpit. Colonel Fajardo described the grenades as non-explosive or were not capable of explosion. Two “dud” grenades clearly weakens the notion that competitors are involved in the grenade throwing incident or disappearances.

I have no doubt that if the allegations of fight fixing are true, then it stands that bettors alongside the operators were cheated or robbed of millions of pesos. The question is how much money was actually lost due to the fixed fights and who lost money? The alleged hundreds of millions is the only possible motive behind the disappearance of 29 “Manyonyopes.” While allegations and denials have been exchanged, the CIDG needs to make their case and establish if there is a syndicate involved in the game fixing, how big is the syndicate and, more importantly, if the syndicate is an external group or a group doing an “inside job” on the cockpit.

While we are all concerned about the fate of the 29 missing sabungeros, let us not assume that the fight fixing was hatched by a bunch of backyard hustlers. Most active sabungeros view these operators with deference or fear and it is hard to imagine that five separate and independent groups of hustlers would have the guts to mess with big time cockfighters and operators. They were either so stupid or were hired to do exactly what they did, believing no harm would come to them. Perhaps the double cross that CIDG Brig. Gen. Ferro referred to was not between the “Manyonyopes” but someone double crossing the operator. That too is a big possibility when greed gets so big that people begin to steal from their own house.

Since the PNP, NBI, DOJ, Senate, and CHR have all gotten into the act, perhaps they should follow the style of the FBI in sharing information not only among themselves but also with the public on a regular basis. Transparency will do away with conspiracy theories and criticism.