Slain ‘tong collector’ knew too much?

MANILA, Philippines - Was a businessman, who has reportedly collected “tong” or protection money for police officials for more than two decades, killed and dismembered because he knew too much?

Raymundo “Ryan” Bacordo’s wife, Helen, identified severed limbs – stuffed in a sack and dumped near the Senate building in Pasay City before dawn last Wednesday – as that of her husband based on a scar on his leg, which he had sustained in a traffic accident several years ago.

A source told The STAR that Bacordo, 43, had no record of shortchanging police officials in Calabarzon and in Camp Crame.

His fellow collectors attested to Bacordo’s “clean” history when remitting protection money from operators of small gambling dens.

However, several policemen in Calabarzon claimed that Bacordo had recently become a collector for police officials who receive protection money from drug syndicates.

“He could have been silenced to keep the identity of policemen involved in the illegal drug trade a secret,” the policemen claimed.

Another source said the illegal drug angle could have been floated to prevent Pasay police investigators from digging deeper into his death.

Bacordo, along with his financier, identified as Boy Bata, allegedly took part in a clandestine bidding to collect protection money for a Calabarzon police official barely a week ago, a third source said.

The winning bid was at P1.8 million, but it was unclear whether Bacordo won the deal to collect payoffs from operators of video karera machines, bookies, mini-carnivals, and gambling dens based in Calabarzon.

The source said Bacordo’s mutilated remains were not dumped in the Southern Tagalog region as it would earn the ire of newly installed Calabarzon police director Chief Superintendent Valfrie Tabian.

 “It would be a bad welcome gift to Tabian,” he said.

Bacordo was last seen alive leaving his residence in Rosario, Batangas Tuesday carrying P500,000, which he intended to deposit to a bank account of his “handlers,” sources said.

Senior Superintendent Joel Doria, Pasay police chief, said homicide probers are conducting follow-up investigations in Pampanga and Batangas in a bid to recover the head and torso. – With Perseus Echeminada