Growing up in a time when ponds, creeks and canals were still clean, natural and somehow connected, one thing I learned was how to catch fish. As I think about it, the same can be done to catch a “Big Fish” involved in crime.
For instance, knowing the kind of fish there is in a body of water usually dictates the technique or technology to use. My father often talked about how difficult it was to catch catfish because they stir up the mud to evade detection and capture.
I remember farmers using a bamboo “saklob” or trap, drive it down into the muddy water and then check if they caught the catfish. Sometimes you get hito or dalag, but often you get zip.
If you were gunning for mudfish or dalag, you know that they regularly come up to breathe air and disappear in the blink of an eye. So, the time-tested method is to use a sling shot, which was eventually replaced by an air gun or “di bomba.”
As kids in gartered short pants, what we often did was to dam up portions of canals and use buckets to drain out the water and after an hour or so, we simply pick up all the fish we could find. We literally left them no place to hide.
As time passed, some people applied technology in the form of a 12-volt car battery, two wire probes with switches and would electroshock portions of ponds and canals. The fish were electrocuted and caught but this damaged the reproductive capability of the fish that got away.
In a manner of speaking, crooks and criminals of the bigger kind are similar to wild fish. They stay under cover, watch the smaller fish fall for the bait. If you use the traditional means of hook, line and sinker, you will be waiting a very long, long time.
The bigger fish often eat up the smaller fish, navigate the terrain, they rely on camouflage and speed, and they stay in place as long as it’s safe or under their control. So how can the government catch the big fish, if they control many parts of government?
No less than the DOJ Secretary Boying Remulla has stated that the people behind the disappearance of the sabungeros are so rich, so powerful and so influential. They are in a way like Al Capone, the Triad, or the modern-day Mob. Secretary Remulla would not even know who to trust.
In the heyday of online sabong, there were allegations that cops from the CIDG were making representations collecting “intelligentsia” or protection money for a DILG official. There were police officials who owned game farms and participated in online sabong.
A regulatory official claimed that he had no choice but to submit to the legal opinion of a Malacañang official that effectively supported online sabong. Former DILG secretary Benhur Abalos would surely have so much information about people who were part of the “business.”
So how does one go after the Big Fish? First, you form a fishing party, or the equivalent of “The Untouchables” led by Elliot Ness, who targeted the illegal operations of Al Capone in America. Political will and a specialized group is required to catch the real culprits.
Next you decide what “fish” and where to go fishing. As far as the missing sabungeros and online sabong is concerned, there are many tales, many leads and an ocean of choices to pick and choose.
Based on all the statements and speculations, the DOJ and their version of The Untouchables could investigate who were directly and indirectly involved in online sabong.
Who were the protectors, and which agencies, members of Congress and units of government were allegedly covering for the massive business?
Sometimes the people who cause the bloodbath among gangs were “lieutenants,” not godfathers. Who really stood to lose so much money from sabungeros involved in tiope or fight fixing? Sabungeros beat up cheaters, only killers kill.
Incidentally, when The Untouchables went after Al Capone, they got him on tax evasion and not directly on criminal activities that were related to the sale of illegal liquor.
Going for the Big Fish doesn’t usually land you a Big Fish. But the chances of catching a boatload of crooks, cops and corrupt government officials are higher. Each successful case will build up even bigger cases over a period of time.
Secretary Remulla has already hinted that they will be investigating members of the PNP. May I suggest that the good secretary cast a bigger net and investigate government officials who were directly and indirectly involved in online sabong.
Then the Fishing Party can start catching the smaller fish or crooks and use them for bait, in a manner of speaking. A common mistake of many Justice departments in the world is they target the big fish instead of the smaller fish who are easier to catch.
Just being called to the DOJ is disturbing enough. Having their financial history reviewed and being asked to explain or reconcile these will make the petty player quiver in fright. If the DOJ, DOF, ombudsman and AMLC really got serious about it, a joint effort might produce shocking results.
Just like Al Capone, the current issue about missing sabungeros involves corruption, large scale tax evasion, criminal conspiracy and abuse of authority. It is not a “cops and robbers” story; it is about a pond full of bloodthirsty piranhas who contributed to the murder of 34 to 100 persons. That’s mass murder isn’t it?
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