On Saturday May 14,2011 Soken"Angelina"Chew Mantigue was going about her regular routine.Most of Angelina's days are just like any other,stocking shelves,doing the books and helping to wait on customers in her family's"Sam's Grocery Center,"long a fixture in North Upi's Barangay Nuro in Maguindanao Province.Most of the time the 54 year old woman found her life boring though that's not necessarily a bad thing given her experience in 2001.Like most Tsinoy (Filipinos of Chinese descent) she and her family had weathered numerous threats,extortion attempts and even the occasional kidnapping.
In fact,in that 2001 incident Angelina had been grabbed by 4 gunmen.The men had tried to shove Angelina into a van at which point her bodyguards sprang into action and initiated a short but very bloody firefight.When the smoke cleared a few moments later 2 of her assailants lay dead with the other 2 laying critically wounded.Amazingly Angelina emerged unscathed from the affair.Notably,2001 was at the tail end of a terrible decade for area Tsinoy with 70 cases REPORTED KFRs in just the North Cotabato/Maguindanao Provincial border area.By 1998 the local Tsinoy business associations were threatening to pull out in one fall swoop.Throughout Southeast Asia Chinese minorities serve as the backbone of most local economies and in the Philippines this has always been especially so.
Though Chinese have been trading and settling here since time immemorial they have never fully assimilated.A good part of that relates to the country's colonial history.Most of the time the Spanish,who referred to the Chinese as"Sangley"in bastardised Spanish,forced them to live in tightly packed ghettos,restricted their forms of employment and so when these harsh strictures were finally relaxed the local Chinese continued reinforcing that here to fore externally imposed separate identity.Even today most Filipino cities have "Chinese Schools,"though nowadays the student bodies tend to be more Filipino than Chinese since these schools over whelmingly produce much higher achievers overall).
On Mindanao,and points south,Tsinoy tend to concentrate their business interests in retail outlets specialising in hardware and general purpose wares.However,they form the foundation of all local economies.In a population centre like Cotabato City the Tsinoy ARE the local retail economy,end of discussion.Should they pull out en masse the nation's poorest region would literally hit rock bottom.Therefore the deployment of a Marine battalion to Cotabato City in 1998,though mostly for show,satisfied Tsinoy demands.Still it was the 2000 War between the MILF and the Government that had the most positive results in terms of curtailing that spiraling KFR rate.Most KFR organisations in Mindanao are composed of BIAF (Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces,the armed wing of the MILF) guerillas.
As an insurgent organisation the MILF/BIAF doesn't provide much in the way of financial security for its members.Certain BIAF Base Commands,or armed elements,almost completely fund themselves via KFR and the related extortion that so pervades every aspect of the local economy.The 113,114,104 and 102 Base Commands,which operate in the Zamboangan Peninsula,Basilan,Liguasan Marsh and Lanao del Sur respectively are neck deep in these activities.
In the 2001 incident the 4 gunmen belonged to the infamous Pentagon Group,now extinct (contrary to the ramblings of various ignorant PNP and Government spokespeople).I have discussed the Pentagon Group in other KFR entries,including one entitled,"The Resurrection of the Pentagon Group,"so for the sake of brevity I will merely offer that the group was founded by an ex-BIAF ("ex"according to the MILF but of course not in reality) "Kumander"(the generic label used by both the MNLF/BMA and MILF/BIAF to denote anyone of authority) named Tahir"Kumander Tigre"Alonto.Alonto,who had various other monikers,such as"Kuya Allan" (Elder Brother Allan),"Kumander Ronnie" and "Conto Alonto"was an extremely charismatic man who took a moderately entrenched industry like KFR and extortion and turned it into a genuine money machine.
When Alonto was killed his group splintered into several small highly competitive factions,albeit all of them moderately allied.It was this splintering along with the afore mentioned 2000 War that led to the steep decline on KFRs,not a deployment of a single Marine BLT (Battalion Landing Team,in this case MBLT-7).With time the strongest faction emerged as the local power to reckon with and so today the name that has replaced Alonto is Makyangkang Saguile.Saguile,48 years old is native of Talayan,a municipality in Maguindanao Province though he spends most of his time in GenSan (General Santos City) in Saragani Province.A former BIAF sub-Kumamder of the 105 Base Command he is now allied with the MNLF and often uses its Camp Bad'r in his hometown of Talayan as a staging ground,as well as a means of avoiding interdiction if the dogs are close behind.
According to various political agreements both MILF/BIAF and MNLF/BMA camps are off limits to both the AFP and the PNP.If someone is being chased and runs into a camp the most that can be done is to politely ask the camp's highest ranking man to turn him over.To my knowledge that has never happened,not even once.To ignore such agreements can can be to literally cause a major war as was the case in the 2003 Buliok Complex War.Ironically,the war began as an Anti-Pentagon Group tactical operation.
With the Government adamantly claiming that it had neutralised the KFR and extortion groups in 2002 many Tsinoy,like Angelina felt no need for heavily armed entourages and so things returned to normal,or what passes for normal in this part of the world.Fast forward to the present,Saturday,May 14th,2011.Angelina sat down at the cashier's table to wait on some customers.4 young men who had been posing as customers themselves quickly surrounded her and began dragging her out the door.Though she was kicking and screaming in what amounts to a downtown shopping district noone moved to help her.Shoved into a grey Mitsubishi Lancer the group quickly sped off down Rizal Boulevard towards the neighbouring municipality of Datu Odin Sinsuat.
Ditching the auto in North Upi's Barangay Mirab and setting it on fire,the group set off on foot for the border of Datu Odin Sinsuat when a motorcycle hidden in the marsh for this leg of their escape refused to start.Picking up their trail the soldiers in pursuit tried closing in but fell back after Angelina's captors initiated a firefight.Since losing sight of the group there have been reports that she is being held in a mountainous area above that same town,Datu Odin Sinsuat.Her brother,local attorney Roland Anwar Chew is handling ransom negotiations and is currently doing his best to whittle down the initial demand of P15 Million (~$310,000).
The latest"Natural Cure"craze has led a foreign national to the Southern Philippines and into captivity.50 year old Mohammad Nasaruddin bin Saidin of Sungai Buloh,Selangor a suburb of Kuala Lampur arrived on Jolo Island in Sulu Province in late April,2011 with his friend Abdulgafar bin Akkirulla.Akkirulla,a dual Malaysian/Philippine citizen raised in Malaysia had assured bin Saidin that he could lead him to a low-cost supplier of Spotted Geckos.Known in the Philippines as"Tukos"due to their distinctive call the lizard is quite common here,albeit not nearly as common as its much smaller cousins that are found on most any any interior wall.As common as it certainly is,Philippine Law protects the species due to its moderate popularity in the West as a pet.
Why all the fuss?Practitioners of Chinese Herbal Medicine have long used the Tuko's dried innards as panacea but within the last year the creature has become known outside of the Chinese Community as a fix-all curative.With people claiming it can cure cancer or even HIV-AIDs its price has skyrocketed.The smallest lizards are selling in Mindanao for P300 (~$6.25) and one large specimen tipping the cales at 425 grammes managed to fetch a whopping P20 Million in Kuala Lampur (~$420,000).With ever increasing demand throughout the Pacific Rim enterprising people are now travelling far afield into places they might otherwise never even consider visiting.Mr.bin Saidin was himself a truck driver who had long dreamed of a better life.His wife Mazlina Muhamad [sic],a seller of Kuih (a steamed gelatinous rice confection popular in Southern China,Singapore and parts of Malaysia) helped bankroll what was to be bin Saidin's first buying trip.He hoped to tap into an under utilised market,though he probably did so without bothering to consider just why noone else uses the Southern Philippines.
Mr.bin Akkirulla and Mr.bin Saidin arrived in Jolo and quickly secured lodging in the home of Benhar Maadilin in Sitio Boutan State,Barangay Kajatian,in the town of Indanan.Akkirulla soon left to points unknown leaving bin Saidin to his lizard hunting and dreams of striking it rich.As is so often the case with foreign treasure hunters (albeit for very different types of treasure),bin Saidin's judgement was over ridden by his desire for profit and before too long everyone knew about the strange Malaysian who was offering huge sums of money for a commonly found lizard.Indanan being an ASG (Abbu Sayyaf Group) bailiwick the gossip soon led to trouble.
Just after midnite on May 7th a group of 10 gunmen kicked in the door of the Maadilin family home and grabbed bin Saidin,his 3 cellphones along with his bankbook and passport before frog marching him into the jungle and into incognito.Soon the motley group was dragging a shocked bin Saidin uphill through Barangay Upper Buansa.At the end of that uphill barangay the terrain soon becomes very steep as it lies on the side of Bud Daho,an extinct volcano best known as the site of a memourable engagement between Datu Jakiri and the US Army sent to neutralise him in March of 1906.Just 2 days after the kidnapping ASG made its opening gambit with a demand of P10 Million (~$210,000).Not long after the group made direct contact with their captive's family in Malaysia.
Apparently ASG was operating on instinct as it so often does.The poor truck driver they had snatched was NOT a big businessman in the blackmarket wildlife trade.bin Saidin was only just beginning to learn about what Malaysians call,"Cicak Tokek,"or the"Gecko Trade."Far from being a multi-millionaire he relied on Western Union transmittals from his wife's extremely meagre earnings to keep himself in boiled rice and bottled water.As bad as things might be for Mr.bin Saidin,things were surely a lot worse for his distressed wife Mazlina.She received word that her husband would be beheaded on May 16th unless she made a down payment on their latest demand of P5 Million (~$100,000).The sum might as well have been P100 Million since she was barely able to feed their 2 young children.The deadline came and went with no word from the kidnappers.As Ms.Mohamed nervously awaited word about the deadline and the fate of her husband the Chief of the Indanan MPO (Municipal Police Office) received an illuminating call.The Malaysian Consul General in Manila had just phoned Chief of Police,Inspector Mohammad Khan Kamlon with news that ASG had re-contacted the victim's wife.The kidnappers had lowered their demand to a relatively paltry P8 Million (~$166,000),with a downpayment required to the effect of P5 Million (~$125,000).
In the days since that call on May 16th Mr,bin Saidin has been sighted once again down slope from Bud Daho,entering Barangay Buansa,still in Indanan.Likewise his captors have ben identified as a crew working under sub-Kumander Alhansy Misaya,who had been encamped in Barangay Buansa's Sitio Bunga.
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