How Gangsters Operate

This is how gangsters and Mafia operate in trying to silence witnesses and whistleblowers.

Conrado de Quiros:

Comes now the "rescue" of Sgt. Vidal Doble from the San Carlos Seminary led by his wife who claimed he was kidnapped by Ong and company and kept in the seminary under duress. Can anything be more ludicrous? It would be more believable if it hadn't happened before in the form of Mike Defensor raiding a safehouse in Tagaytay to "rescue" Udong Mahusay from the clutches of Lacson. Mahusay, Lacson's star witness in his case against Jose Pidal, alias Mike Arroyo, would later claim he was held against his will and knew he would be executed afterward. This, while being in the possession of a cell phone throughout the course of his abduction. To this day, Lacson has yet to be charged with kidnapping and frustrated homicide by Defensor and his boss.

A local saying puts it graphically: "Bumenta na 'yan." [It's an old script.] Can anyone possibly believe that Ong, whose teeth were chattering from fear in his press conference, could be in a position to kidnap anyone? Liwayway Chato, Ong's God-fearing lawyer, who was in San Carlos at the time, has another version. Doble was in fear for his family's life. They, and not he, were being held under duress by the authorities, and he had no choice but to give himself up to Socrates Villegas, the bishop who became famous by decrying the trampling by unshod feet of the Edsa Shrine as a sacrilege. Doble's case reminds me of Michael Corleone in "The Godfather II" bringing the father of a former associate who was about to testify against him in a Senate hearing as a veiled threat. The fellow promptly retracted his accusations. As Doble does now.

That's what we have now, a regime of gangsters. And they keep saying wiretapping is illegal!

Or read this article from Ellen Tordesillas and tell me that it didn't make your blood run cold.

And Wretchard, Max Soliven and the pro-Arroyo bloggers linked in Publius Pundit still think Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is a president worth keeping and hanging on to despite everything they know about him?

Soft touch before kidnap

Gloria Arroyo’s people didn’t need practice for the operation they mounted to get T/Sgt. Vidal Doble out of San Carlos Seminary last Sunday.

With his wife and children under the military’s custody, Doble succumbed to the pressure and turned around, discrediting the video tape that Samuel Ong, former NBI deputy director had presented as proof that he (Doble) had a hand in the taping of the conversations between Arroyo and Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano about rigging the 2004 elections.

The term they used is "soft touch". In the GMA-Garcillano tapes, the word "soft touch" appeared as they planned the kidnapping of a Comelec employee in Tipo-Tipo whom they feared was in the custody of the opposition.

Listening to the taped conversations, one would think the persons are gangsters planning a kidnapping operation. There’s a part where Garcillano was talking with an unidentified man about someone they want to be in their custody. They planned to pick up the person’s family members.

Here’s that portion of the tape:

Unidentified man: Nasa Manila.

Garcillano: Nasa Maynila? Delikado. Hindi ba natin ma-contact?

UM: Walang ano…Ini-off ang cell phone. Pinahanap ko sa isa.

Garcillano: Pakikuwan lang. Delikado yan.

UM: Oo nga. Sabi ko sa ISAFP dito (garbled) na Zamboanga para may bargaining chip tayo diyan, e damputin na natin yung pamilya na rin niya. Kasi baka makapagsalita.

Garcillano: Oo nga e.

After that, there was a portion where Garcillano told the unidentified man: Maghanap ka ng well-meaning na kamag-anak niya, Huwag mo munang ipakikidnap ang pamilya. Soft touch muna.

The conversation between Gloria Arroyo and Garcillano was about a certain Rashma Hali.

GMA: Did you get my text about Tipo-Tipo?

Garcillano: Oho, oho Ma’am. Kuwan, that is what I am being fearful about kung si Rashma Hali yun. That is why we are asking people to look for her so that we can confront her.

GMA: She’s probably being held by them.

Garcillano: Ma’am?

GMA: She is probably being held by them already.

Garcillano: She is here. That is why if it is possible, we will have her family call her up from Zamboanga.

GMA : Ok, ok.

The next GMA-Garcillano conversation was still about the Tipo-Tipo lady:

GMA: Hello

Garcillano: Yes, Ma’am.

GMA: Ano, nahanap na ninyo?

Garcillano: Ma’am?

GMA: Ano, nahanap na ninyo yung sa Tipo-Tipo?

Garcillano: Ang Tipo-Tipo ho, hindi pa.

Rashma Hali, the Tipo-Tipo lady, was still the subject of the conversation between Garcillano and the unidentified man:

Garcillano: Kaya ito, kung anuman, malalaman ko hanggang umaga ng maagang-maaga kung ano talaga ang score doon so I can (garbled) get his …her family kung halimbawa.

UM: Oo

Garcillano:Sabagay medyo matindi na ito. Kasi nandoon naman si Lomibao. Nandoon. Ewan ko kung sino pa ang nandoon. May isang colonel na nandoon. Sabi ko, kung kailangang kunin, kukunin na yung pamilya niya.

UM: Uh-hum

Garcillano: E Lokohan na rin ano. (garbled).. Walang naman alam yan.

UM: Kaya nga, kaya nga.

Garcillano: Eh, ewan ko, kung pupunta uli sa (garbled), pakidnap ko siya. Nakaano.

UM: Eh, hindi naman pumupunta. Pero ang balita ko, nandidito na sa Parañaque.

Garcillano: Nandito na yung ano.

UM: Nandito sa Parañaque noong Saturday.

Garcillano: Let us ask somebody to look for and get his..her family kung puede.


I tried calling up Garcillano yesterday and the guy who answered the phone said he was out of town. I asked where is "out of town". They guy said, "I don’t know."

I asked for Ellen Peralta, Garcillano’s executive secretary. In one of his conversations with then senatorial candidate Robert Barbers, Garcillano instructed the former to deliver the P1.5 million to Peralta.

The guy said Peralta was also not in. I asked where she was. He said, "I don’t know."

I asked who is running Garcillano’s office. He said, "I am."

I asked for his name and he said, "Francis Mina." I asked what is he in Garcillano’s office. He replied: "Utility." Janitor.