Patrons of the underworld
May Palabra Sicat
In a recent conversation with my brother and his former high school classmates I learned much about the underworld right here in our province. Just a year ago, seven young men who worked as bodyguards of the underworld “patrons” here in our town were summarily killed. In the recent news about “rub-outs” nothing compares to how these seven died. Their leader suffered more than a hundred stabs. One ice-pick stab went straight into his toenail. His coffin couldn’t be opened because his face blew up to unrecognizable proportions. His enemies took him by force from his house, wrapped him tightly using a packaging tape. There was a “commando” force which passed his body in an assembly-line kind of torture.
This unfortunate gang leader did have a room full of guns, but at the time he was abducted, he wasn’t able to fire a single gun. His 59 inch-TV was completely destroyed, and all the millions he stored in his vault, including those that he had set up for his family were taken away. He was 32 years old. Earlier, his boss, the power behind the gang, called him to say that he should run for his life. But power had taken hold even of his ego and he thought he would be able to handle their enemies. He was able to call for support but two of those he called were ambushed. The rest whose names he was forced to squeal all died and everybody knew who killed them but nobody got caught. There wasn’t even a howl of protest from families. My brother’s friend was recounting his boyhood memory about the killers of this gang. These hoodlums lived and ate their bread by killing people. Certain top politicians in our province and influential rich families have all benefited from their professional services.