Friday, May 16, 2008 Malilong: Con men in the city By Frank Malilong The Other Side
KINSAY nakakita sa hangin?/ Dili ako, dili ikaw./ Apan kung ang mga dahon/ Nanikaysikay/ Timailhan sa hangin nga minglabay.
We used to recite that rhyme when we were first-graders at the Bugang Primary School in Pio V. Corpus, Masbate. No one has seen the wind; nobody can. But you know that when the leaves rustle, the wind is passing by.
You do not need any rustling leaves to know that smuggling is rampant in Cebu; just look at the flashy foreign-made cars that ply the streets. But no one has seen the smugglers; nobody can, if you believe the President’s own anti-smuggling body.
Oh yes, they have a list of the six top smugglers in Cebu. Or there used to be a list but it was/is not for public consumption.
Why? Because they might be charged with libel. Why should they be charged with libel? Because they do not have any evidence. I told you, nobody can see the wind.
But isn’t any information given to Congress in an investigation privileged communication? Is it libel that the country’s anti-smuggling czar’s worried about? Or is it because those in the list have friends in high places?
You can feel the wind but you can’t touch it. Just like the smugglers.
***
Lost in the furor over the recent ambush of three swindling suspects is an equally disturbing fact: that con men continue to operate in Cebu, preying on unsuspecting victims.
The modus operandi is strikingly familiar but for one reason or another, there are still people who fall for the set-up. One of them was a lady doctor who was conned by people she just met going to the bank to withdraw money from her savings account as capital for a business that promised to immediately pay handsome dividends.
Another was a former official in the military’s medical corps who lost almost his entire retirement pay under the same circumstances. Still another victim was a businesswoman who accepted on consignment from a stranger a bag that supposedly contained expensive confectionery ingredient.
Three days later, another stranger came inquiring if she happened to know anyone who was selling special imported powder for candies. She showed him the bag and after he examined the contents, paid her twice the value quoted by the first stranger. Before leaving, the buyer said he was willing to buy as many bags of the powder as she can supply.
A few days later, the supplier conveniently showed up. She asked him to supply her one million pesos worth of the powder, which he did but on a cash basis this time. As you must have guessed, that was the last time she saw both men.
Suspicious, she went to the National Bureau of Investigation who told her that the “imported confectionery ingredient” was plain cassava flour.
The swindlers are innocent-looking. They wear decent clothes and travel by car. They usually have a “boss” or an “investor,” who is introduced as a foreigner. And they go great lengths in gaining the victim’s confidence. In one case, for example, they even had a contact holed up in a luxury hotel in Manila.
The realization that you’ve been had is a bitter pill to swallow. The reactions vary but none of them includes offering the other cheek. The victims would have probably strangled the swindlers if they saw them again.
They seldom do. But in the few cases that they did, I would not be surprised if they made the swindlers reap what they sowed, a hundredfold.
