The ‘Ilonggo Bikoy’

“I wasn't aware of it at the time, but I was a big favorite with the Mafia.”
--Brenda Lee

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Some relatives and loved ones of candidates in the May 2019 elections are the ones who are more jittery and restless as the final days approach.
Some of these nervous relatives have sought the help of the social media and other public platforms to appeal and campaign for their beloved candidates especially when they weren’t doing good in the surveys.
In some cases, the worried relatives are the ones initiating the “house-to-house” campaign for their candidates.
Children, parents, cousins, uncles, aunts have joined in the frenzied efforts to woo the voters and convince the public their bets are the Real McCoys in a genuine public service.
This is normal.

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Some Filipino family members always want to share the prestige and glory--big or small- achieved by their loved ones in any field.
Even in school and community competitions, we cheer and “pray” for the victory and success of our relatives in the hustings.
When they make it, the pride, joy and satisfaction felt by our victorious relatives reverberate in our hearts; we feel like the honor and reputation of the entire family have been lifted and stimulated.
When they go down, our pride and self-esteem sink; and we also suffer from emotional and mental strains in one way or the other.

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Iloilo City has its own “Bikoy” (an anonymous self-confessed former drug syndicate member who recently accused President Duterte’s family of alleged involvement in narco business) who “survived” after he left the syndicate to live in another country.
The Iloilo Bikoy is knowledgeable of the ins and outs of the drug syndicate in Iloilo City.
He was once one of the most trusted by the syndicate’s top echelons because of his profession.
The Bikoy Ilonggo version came to me on several occasions to appeal that I bring him in some of my international trips in the 90’s “to escape the heat in Iloilo City and disappear thereafter.”
He and his family left the country after a former top-ranking official of the defunct Narcom (Narcotics Command) in the region allegedly wanted him dead for being a “rat.”

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The Ilonggo Bikoy swore he wasn’t a traitor or a “double agent.”
He surmised it was not the former Narcom big boss who wanted to silence him.
The Ilonggo Bikoy recalled that he “earned the ire of (former) Metrodistrict Command Col. Vic Neptuno after a big fish had slipped away in a dawn raid conducted in the house of a drug trafficker in Jaro district.”
The Ilonggo Bikoy and the drug trafficker who escaped Neptuno’s dragnet were classmates in high school.
Two cops working under Neptuno had pointed to the Ilonggo Bikoy as the one who allegedly tipped off the drug trafficker.
“Nakakarami na siya. Sakit na siya sa ulo (he has been a headache to our operations),” Neptuno was reportedly angrily heard complaining.
Meanwhile, the former Narcom official, who spent several months in jail for his involvement in illegal drugs, once came to our editorial office in Sun Star Iloilo dressed like a priest.
Like the Greeks in the Trojan War, he was carrying a gift for our lady reporter who had no idea about the Narcom official’s dark secrets.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)