Bagmen

From my years covering elections, I can believe stories of huge piles of cash being delivered in sacks or suitcases, either for or from politicians.

In a country where corruption is endemic, many people know enough not to leave a paper trail. Dirty money is moved around in cash, and deposited in banks only when sufficient layers are in place to conceal the identity of the principal account holder.

During elections, the cash is handed out to political leaders at the grassroots, usually barangay officials, for distribution to voters. The wife of a barangay captain in Metro Manila told me recently that in the 2025 elections, she was surprised when her husband showed her a sack containing P500,000 in small denominations for distribution to their voting neighbors. The money came from someone campaigning for a local post in the city.

She didn’t call it vote buying, and the guileless way by which she disclosed it to a journalist showed that she clearly saw nothing wrong with it, considering it as just the normal way of doing business during elections.

The amounts given away are of course larger for those seeking national posts. One of the aides of a former presidential frontrunner said lugging around a sack with P6 million in cash, for distribution to political leaders to buy votes, was normal.

Of course deniability must be built in, always shielding the principal, whether as the source or recipient of the cash. No politician or public official worth his salt will ever personally handle or receive sacks or suitcases containing dirty money.

Such cash deliveries are not just for election campaigns, but for corrupt activities. I can actually believe those stories about millions in cash being delivered to the properties of certain public officials now facing accusations of large-scale corruption.

And there are people who can believe the alleged involvement of Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, President Marcos’ congressman son Sandro and perhaps even BBM himself in corruption arising from budget and public works anomalies.

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The truth should set us free. Unfortunately, the stories being given by 18 mostly former soldiers seem to be a mishmash of truths, half-truths and outright disinformation. And depending on who is allied with their handlers, they are engaged in dagdag-bawas – padding and shaving of names in their s**t list – in implicating alleged culprits.

In the latest installment of their narrative, given before six members of the new Senate minority, the 18 self-proclaimed bagmen omitted mention of two senators from their original affidavit: Loren Legarda and Mark Villar, who are both members of this Senate bloc led by Alan Peter Cayetano.

The two were instead replaced by two members of the new majority, former Senate chief Tito Sotto and the new head of the Blue Ribbon, Erwin Tulfo. Sotto, who was not in government from 2022 to 2025 when Romualdez and Zaldy Co controlled the House purse, laughed off his inclusion, pointing out that his aide who supposedly received the payoffs died in 2015.

Also newly tossed into the murky soup were members of the House justice committee and the prosecution team in the upcoming impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, plus Catholic priest and human rights activist Fr. Flavie Villanueva, who has been assisting relatives of victims of the bloody war on drugs waged by the VP’s father Rodrigo Duterte.

With these new twists in the 18 bagmen’s stories, whatever truth might be contained in their narrative becomes tainted.

I asked Google AI how much space P50 million in 1,000 denominations, neatly stacked, would take up. It answered that P50 million means 50,000 individual 1,000 banknotes, which would measure just 1.6 feet or 18 inches when neatly stacked. “This easily fits into a single, standard-sized checked suitcase,” Google AI noted.

If this space calculation is accurate, P500 million – the supposed amount of daily deliveries to thieves – can then fit into just 10 suitcases or boxes.

The banknotes would be heavy at 50 kilograms, which is way beyond the regular weight limit for checked luggage on planes. But there’s no weight limit for door-to-door delivery to the homes of crooked politicians.

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One part that strains credulity – as narrated by MIA ex-Marine Orly Guteza – is the alleged cash for Romualdez being placed in 46 Rimowa suitcases, each containing P48 million in “basura.” Why not just place the cash in sealed boxes? Rimowa luggage prices range from P75,000 to over P180,000 each. Although I guess if one cash pile amounts to P48 million, what’s P75,000, or even P180,000?

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, when he chaired the Blue Ribbon committee, brushed off as implausible the story of the 18 men, who claimed that as security escorts, they delivered an estimated total of P805 billion over three years to several personalities. At one kilo per P1 million in 1,000 banknotes, P805 billion would weigh 805 metric tons.

The money supposedly came from Ako Bicol party-list congressman (now resigned) Elizaldy Co when he chaired the powerful committee on appropriations of the House of Representatives, which was led at the time by Romualdez. The money was supposedly withdrawn not from banks but from a money changer in Makati. How did that money changer get access to such huge amounts of cash?

The handlers of the 18 bagmen insisted that their stories must be heard, since Lacson and his Blue Ribbon plus the Office of the Ombudsman refused to do so.

Last week the nation listened to the rehashed stories of the 18, and even non-lawyers spotted a lot of holes.

Still, just to put the issue to rest, and refute insinuations that certain folks are scared of the truth, those holes must be officially punctured in a public hearing where the 18 men can face grilling rather than having their sentences finished by their handlers.

For those not yet sick of the shifting stories of the 18 bagmen, stand by for the next episode this week.