Year of the fugitives, falling out

The year that was

MANILA, Philippines — Almost drowned out by all the political noise and dangerous maneuvers in the high seas was the landslide that killed around a hundred people in the small mining town of Maco, Davao de Oro in early February. The tragic incident was said to be a result of continuous rains from a shear line and foundational weakening of the soil, possibly due to nearby mining operations, with a good number of the dead from an indigenous group, including miners on a bus waiting for a ride home.

Developments that hogged the headlines in the next several months, more riveting storylines that caught public attention, might have buried the memory of Maco a second time. Among which was the long drawn acrimonious breakup of the much-touted UniTeam, the equally serial search for fugitives from the law that ranged from a Tarlac mayor with a shadow of doubt on her citizenship, to a disgraced evangelist in Davao suspected of sexual shenanigans, not to forget repeated run-ins with the Chinese coast guard in the country’s exclusive economic zone replete with water cannoning, blinding lasers and a lost thumb.

It wasn’t just sound and fury, but also cheers and exultation with the double gold haul of Olympic gymnast Carlos Yulo in the Paris games, first in the vault then in the general floor exercise, netting him a deserved windfall from assorted sponsors and corporate sports aficionados, and elaborate homecoming parades with an estranged family on the sidelines.

There were the successive storms and typhoons in the fourth quarter, late October into November, that ran some six letters in the alphabet: Kristine, Leon, Marce, Nika, Ofel and Pepito, displacing thousands and damaging billions worth of agriculture produce and infrastructure, with the eastern seaboard and northern provinces as well as Bicol and parts of Mindanao alternately bearing the brunt, as Metro Manila was largely spared except for the wrath of Kristine and Carina earlier in July.

Former senator Leila de Lima was finally cleared of all charges relating to illegal drugs after spending most of her legislative term in detention, while the International Criminal Court dangled an arrest warrant or at least sounded it out to former president Rodrigo Duterte whose war on drugs killed thousands, it might seem that payback was at hand, what with a House quad committee investigating the interconnections between drugs, offshore gaming operations, human trafficking and other nefarious activities.

Televised congressional inquiry became a genre unto itself, with millions glued to the telenovela-like proceedings, a whole new cast of characters that kept cynics preoccupied and the memes flowing, though some revelations were in fact achieved: Bamban mayor Alice Guo holding on to her citizenship for dear life, POGO darling Cassandra Ong not remembering where she took primary school, delightful questioning by Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro that seemed to paint the resource person into a corner as if in a chess match, and the guest spot by the former president himself that threatened to drag into the wee hours, much like the early morning press briefings during his administration.

Then there was the issue of confidential funds that had the relationship between the country’s two top officials coming to a head after a long buildup: Vice President Sara Duterte resigning as education secretary and as official of an anti-communist task force at midyear, her threatening the First Couple and the Speaker of retaliatory death if she herself were taken down, but by the holidays seemed to have calmed, saying she had no intention to run and hide despite impeachment moves, unlike say…

The aforementioned mayor Guo who was arrested in Indonesia, having slipped out of the country amid a Senate hearing on POGOs, as well her cohorts in various schemes, including her sister or ka-apelyido Shiela Guo, whose fractured statements further confused and entertained lawmakers;

The self-anointed son of God Apollo Quiboloy of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, who was holed out for days on end in his ministry’s vast estate in Davao, until police operatives were able to smoke him out first week of September and thereafter charged with sexual abuse of minors, the so-called pastorales;

Former presidential spokesman Harry Roque, who was linked to POGO operations and eventually escaped a congressional inquiry asking for documents like his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth that seemed to have bloated coincidentally with the heyday of the clandestine operations;

Expelled congressman Arnolfo Teves whose repatriation from Timor-Leste is still pending following appeals and counter motions, unable to set foot again in Negros since the killing of the provincial governor the year previous;

The consistently evasive former prisons director Gerarld Bantag, suspect in the ambush of radioman Percy Mabasa but continued to be in hiding, thanks to mistahs and other friends in high places, in a widening circle of conspiracy that resulted in the death of others; and

Former Palawan governor Joel Reyes, wanted for the murder of another broadcaster and environment advocate Gerry Ortega more than a decade ago, but finally turning himself in to the National Bureau of Investigation in September, in between jaunts to and from Thailand.

Such that new chief of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security Joe Torres has his work cut out for him, get to the bottom of the Mabasa and Ortega murders as well other unresolved cases, release an update on the investigation on the ambush slay of former BusinessWorld editor Mike Marasigan and his brother pre-pandemic.

Unable to be saved by any task force was CNN Philippines, which closed shop early in the year, leaving hundreds unemployed, nor the longest running community newspaper Baguio Midland Courier, whose last three issues in July became collector’s items, no longer will its issues hang by the entrance to Luisa’s with its assorted buskers, where journalists gathered on the second floor.

And whatever happened to Charter change or Cha-cha by way of people’s initiative, again confined to the dustbin for the nth time and best remembered as a dance step that was a hit before your mother was born, before Mary Jane Veloso spent 14 years in an Indonesian prison for drugs and flying home for Christmas, but not in a balikbayan box.