Other countries – different customs

Other countries – different customs

Dozens of Filipinos wait outside the editorial office of the daily newspaper “Tempo” every day. They put up with the long wait to be allowed to tell star reporter Ruther D. Batuigas about their problems. In itself, this would be nothing special if it weren’t for the bodyguards who eye every petitioner with suspicion.

Life expectancy in the Philippine capital Manila, which has a population of over 13 million, is not very high, with over 20 murders a day in general, but especially for Batuigas. In his daily column “Bull Eye”, the ardent anti-communist rails against abuses and corruption in the administration, the army and the police. The mentality of some Filipinos who have been victimised by Batuigas’ revelations means that they seek his life; he is blacklisted by the communist death squads.

Batuigas takes this into account and always carries a “baby”, a slightly modified Colt Commander in .45 ACP calibre. The weapon’s ammunition is somewhat unusual, as the cartridges in the magazine are alternately loaded with “normal” hollow point cartridges and projectiles containing poison. Even a single grazing shot will kill a victim within five minutes at the latest. It is obvious that this has advantages for the shooter. On the one hand, he saves himself the trouble of a possibly unfavourable witness statement; on the other hand, a survivor could be inspired by thoughts of revenge.

He is the only reporter who “occasionally forgets a pad and pencil, but never a weapon”. On the side, he runs a detective agency with several hundred employees, most of whom provide uniformed security services in hotels and so on.

The oppressed come to him because he can help them faster than the police, which he himself describes as a “stronghold of crime”. (A policeman earns the equivalent of around ÖS 700 a month!) Batuigas has a network of informers and informants in the underworld and the police; he is regarded as a specialist in the search for missing persons.

His connections bring tears to the eyes of European detectives and reporters. They even enable him to take an active part in raids and interrogations. If he personally vouches for those arrested, they are released, which of course creates allies. The reserve lieutenant colonel can even get hold of helicopters from the army in no time at all.

Spectacular investigative successes, mostly involving children found in the prostitution milieu, have earned him the name “top gangster hunter”. His biggest case was filmed under the title “Hanapin Si Batuigas (Call Batuigas)” and made him famous.

The most famous entertainment district in Manila, the “metropolis of crime”, is called Ermita. It is crammed with bars, nightclubs and establishments with “model shows”, where a surprisingly large number of Europeans can be found. Some of them can be seen from afar as passive convicts, while others fancy themselves as men of the world, although their appearance is sometimes marred by sad rims under their fingernails. Certain pubs with German-speaking owners are regarded as meeting places for Austrians who have left for good reason and – like Udo P. – are counting on the Philippine authorities’ inaction.

Ermita can almost always be used as a starting point when searching for foreigners, even if it is sometimes very tedious and not always entirely safe. The district is firmly in the hands of organised crime, with the Chinese mafia – with the support of the police – constantly gaining ground. Frequent raids on potential takeover properties contribute to the willingness of pub owners to sell and a corresponding fall in prices.

Firstly, it is not advisable to go into the smaller side streets alone in the dark, and secondly, you should have a torch with you. The generally very poor lighting often makes it impossible to recognise open manhole covers in time. With an open lower leg fracture, you are just as much at the mercy of common muggers as gangs specialising in organ trafficking.

Even if you are travelling by taxi – even the most experienced drivers are advised not to drive themselves in hire cars – you should be a little suspicious. Fares that are up to ten times higher for the same journey are not uncommon; every foreign passenger is seen as a cash cow.

Filipinos are generally very helpful, or at least pretend to be. However, foreigners are unlikely to get any information that is really relevant to the investigation, even if they use a sophisticated legend.

This made Batiguas’ support all the more valuable. He provided bodyguards, including an armoured vehicle, and arranged accommodation in a secure hotel. His detectives interviewed countless informants and he himself used his contacts with the authorities.

But even with bodyguards, there can be surprises in a bar when visiting the men’s toilet (there is no reliable information about ladies’ toilets). Before, during and after doing your “little business”, it is unusual to feel strange hands on your thighs and neck from behind without warning. This is not usually in preparation for a particularly clever nightclub robbery, but rather a (successful?) attempt by masseurs to relax their guests.

Batuiga’s bodyguards, most of whom are full-time police or army officers, go through fire for him. He applies special standards when selecting his closest protectors; each of them must have already proven their cold-bloodedness and killed several people. He himself – his upper body looks like an exercise model for anatomy students – has survived three gun and two knife attacks and shot nine people “in self-defence”.

His associates are armed with state-of-the-art weapons such as pistols with silencers, revolvers. assault rifles with rifle grenades, automatic shotguns, hand grenades, etc. Some of them drive armoured vehicles and are in constant radio contact with their boss and the detective centre.

Star reporter and detective Batuigas has long been a millionaire. He lives in a luxury villa 20 kilometres outside Manila with his wife and six children. The building is heavily guarded, the bodyguards live in a separate wing and have a shooting range in the park.

The family has learnt to live with danger. Pranksters regularly tell his wife that he has just been shot. Batuigas knows that he will die a violent death sooner or later. He has stored dossiers abroad and hopes that this is life insurance. The 52-year-old also wants to write a book.

By the way:if you don’t think of buying a souvenir until you get to Manila airport, that’s no problem either; a policeman’s badge costs 20 dollars..

Walter Pöchhacker (Owner of a detective agency in Vienna)
The Criminal Investigator, December 1991