Hole of Justice: Land Grabbing

Hole of Justice: Land Grabbing: Hole of Justice By Peter G. Jimenea A thing clamors for its owner On February 12, 2010, the Supreme Court (SC), Second Division, i...

Land Grabbing

Hole of Justice
By Peter G. Jimenea

A thing clamors for its owner

On February 12, 2010, the Supreme Court (SC), Second Division, in its decision reminded the Iloilo City Government of its abuse of authority by initiating the seizure of a private property without just compensation to its lawful-owner.

The decision is reflected in G.R. No. 168967 entitled; “The Iloilo City Government represented by Mayor Jerry Trenas vs. Hon. Lolita Contreras-Besana, Presiding Judge of the Regional Trial Court, Br. 32 and Elpidio Javellana, Respondents.”

The Court said; “It is arbitrary and capricious for the government to initiate expropriation proceedings, seize a person’s private property, allow the order of expropriation to become final and executory yet, failed to justly compensate its owner for over 25 years.”

The lot in question since 1983, is situated behind the La Paz High School, in La Paz District, Iloilo City. It is owned by Elpidio Javellana who mortgaged the property to Southern Negros Development Bank prior the initiated expropriation proceedings of the city government.

The Court continues “This is government at its most high-handed irresponsible, and should be condemned in the strongest possible terms. For its failure to compensate the land-owner, the Iloilo City government is liable for damages.”

It started when the city/petitioner filed a complaint for eminent domain against Javellana and Southern Negros Development Bank, the latter as mortgagee. The two parcels of land are to be used as a school site for La Paz Public High School as planned by the city government on September 1981.

The property in its Tax declaration has a value of P60 per square meter or a total value of P43,560.00 for the two lots. But the owner asserted that the fair market value of his property is at P220 per square meter. The expropriation proceedings continued until the Court ruled in city/petitioner’s favor.

A Writ of Possession was issued to petitioner sometime in 1985 and was able to take possession of the property for a ten percent the price deposited in the name of the lot owner as certified by the city treasurer. On April 17, 2000, Javellana sought to withdraw the deposit, for the expropriated property but he discovered that there was none as certified by the Phil. Nat’l. Bank.

As there was no payment, Javellana filed a complaint against the city government for Recovery of Possession, Fixing, Recovery of Rental and Damages on April 2, 2003. Counsel for the city asserted Javellana could no longer recover his property as it is now in public used, only payment for the same can be claimed.

An Appraisal Committee was created by the Court to study the fair market value of the property. On November 25, 2003, Javellana asked the city government to deposit P254,000 equivalent to 10% of the fair market value of the property, determined by the Appraisal Committee in 2001 at the time the parties were negotiating for a settlement.

The case dragged for seven years. On February 12, 2010, the SC ruled that the city government should be held liable for damages for taking a private property without payment of just compensation. The prolonged occupation by a government agency of that property without expropriation proceedings undoubtedly entitled the landowner to damages.

Such loss entitles Javellana adequate compensation in the form of actual or compensatory damages with 6% legal interest on the value of land at the time of taking up until fully paid by government. The interest “runs as a matter of law and follows from the right of the landowner to be placed in good position as money can accomplish from date of taking.

The non-payment of the property in possession and without the benefit of expropriation proceedings or exerting efforts to ascertain ownership of the lot by negotiating with the owner are wanton and irresponsible acts which should be suppressed and corrected. (612 SCRA 458) God knows….. see the title!              

Hole of Justice: Where's justice Omb. Apostol?

Hole of Justice: Where's justice Omb. Apostol?: Hole of Justice By Peter G. Jimenea Where is justice Omb. Apostol? On August 2010, Deputy Ombudsman for Visayas Pelagio Apostol was taske...

Where's justice Omb. Apostol?

Hole of Justice

By Peter G. Jimenea

Where is justice Omb. Apostol?

On August 2010, Deputy Ombudsman for Visayas Pelagio Apostol was tasked by Overall Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro to probe further the involvement of Mayor Jerry Trenas (now congressman) in the failed Iloilo City Housing Project.

Since then we heard nothing about the complaint. Now is 19 months already and still no news from him. He should know that the mayor almost spent the entire P137M for the supposed construction of 413 low-cost houses that resulted to nothing. Not one was completed!

Jurisprudence dictates there is no general formula or fixed rule in determination of probable cause, oddly enough, this is an exceedingly rare instance. If the documents submitted to his office do not suffice to indict the man, why did he not dismiss the long-overdue complaint in his office?

Probable cause needs only to rest on evidence showing that more likely than not, a crime has been done. The unauthorized payment of the mayor to the contractor is embraced in RA 3019, enough for a first-year law student to believe that an offense charged has been committed.

Ombudsman Apostol failed to properly apply the mandate empowered him by law.  He neglects to promote efficient service to the people when it is provided in Sec. 13 of RA 6770 or the “Ombudsman Act of 1989.”

Sec. 13, Mandate – the Ombudsman and Deputies, as protectors of the people shall act promptly on complaints filed against officers or employees of the government. Enforce administrative civil and criminal liability in every case where the evidence warrants in order to promote efficient service by the Government to the people.

But a complaint filed in 2004 by former city councilors Atty. Raul Gonzalez, Jr. and Atty. Antonio Pesina against then mayor Trenas is yet to see justice. Sleeping for 19 months at the Ombudsman-Visayas Office creates a bad impression that the delayed action is done in exchange for … you know what!  

The last paragraph of Sec. 15, RA 6770 reads; – the Ombudsman shall give priority to complaints filed against high-ranking government officials and/or those occupying supervisory positions, complaints involving grave offenses as well as complaints involving large sums of money and/or properties.

But irony of it, a lady employee of the Ombudsman-Visayas, Iloilo Office pompously said over a television that they will investigate immediately the driver of a government vehicle caught parked-overnight in front of Dragon Lodge last month. What about prioritizing the P137M housing mess of former Mayor Trenas?

Sec. 26, (Par 2) of RA 6770 - the Office of the Ombudsman shall act on the complaint immediately and if it finds the same entirely baseless, it shall dismiss the same and inform the complainant of such dismissal citing the reasons thereof.

If it has a reasonable ground to investigate further, it shall first furnish the respondent public officer with a summary of the complaint and require him to submit a written answer within seventy-two hours from receipt thereof. If the answer is found satisfactory, it shall dismiss the case.

The law abhors technicalities that impede the cause of justice. The paramount public interest in this issue should be afforded the amplest opportunity for the proper and just determination of their cause free from the unacceptable plea of technicalities.

Deliberate or not, Deputy Ombudsman Apostol has committed an injustice to the taxpayers in this messy Iloilo City Housing project. His injustice lies fairly in the “delayed” resolution than “erroneous” decision which can be appealed immediately.

Atty, Romeo Gerochi also filed a suit against the mayor in this white elephant project. With three lawyers, I see no latent defect in the complaint. This is not a coram non judice – a suit brought before a Court without proper jurisdiction. So, …. see the title!te to the D

Hole of Justice: The RH Bill

Hole of Justice: The RH Bill: Hole of Justice by Peter G. Jimenea Why I am for the RH Bill A group in Facebook named “I Support RH Bill Referendum” requested me if I...

Hole of Justice: The RH Bill

Hole of Justice: The RH Bill: Hole of Justice by Peter G. Jimenea Why I am for the RH Bill A group in Facebook named “I Support RH Bill Referendum” requested me if I...

The RH Bill

Hole of Justice
by Peter G. Jimenea

Why I am for the RH Bill

A group in Facebook named “I Support RH Bill Referendum” requested me if I can repost my previous article in the Daily Guardian about the pending Bill in Congress. The column is not good for the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) but let’s be considerate..


The perceived income of the Catholic Church from birth to death of devotees may have inspired the CBCP to oppose the RH Bill. But the leaders have inadvertently overlooked that Iglesia ni Kristo, one of the Christian Churches with big followers in this country have already expressed support to the Bill.


Christendom doctrine the importance of baptismal after birth, confirmation, first communion, wedding of the grown-ups wanting to have a family, and all should be under the blessings of the Catholic Church. Worse, they told us that even dead members of our family cannot go to heaven without the blessing of a Church - for a fee.


There are no Abu Sayyaf or AFP warriors in this disagreement, only two members of a Catholic family - the rich and the poor. The hypocrite rich-devotees who rule the law and the less-educated poor that when offended, may prefer to settle for money than apology!


Condom and oral contraceptives are already in use prior to the introduction of RH Bill in Congress. On why the CBCP stood up boldly only now opposing the use of these things, they solely knew. But they should know that it is only for them and their hypocrite-group that what they did was good!


They repeatedly sounded the call that life is sacred and shouted a big “NO” to RH Bill. But what about the poor mothers crying on the TV screen begging for help to save their dying kids due to lack of medicines? Where are the hearts of the CBCP members in this regard?


That’s true, more parishioners more collection. But what about the fast growing population of the poor in slum areas and the lack of employment for the jobless majority? The high cost of education and healthcare plus lack of food on the table can drive a father of five in the brink of insanity!


Oral contraceptives and condoms are use not to abort life from a mother's womb but to stop the development of a man and a woman sperm to become a fetus. The stuffs are used to avoid unwanted pregnancy and for responsible parents, to limit the number of children in a family.


It is not abortion as what the CBCP's earlier claim hinted at. There’s no murder here, for how can you kill a lifeless matter? The CBCP nitpicks too much on the State's affair when their backyards are in shambles. Why interfere in government programs for the good of its citizens?


The widening gap of economic disparity between the rich and the poor are getting closer to the pit of poverty. But the CBCP has done nothing laudable to curb the problems. They are already in the pot but jumped into the fire. Just don’t make the people hungry and someday they will run amuck!


What is wrong with RH Bill that it must be stopped? The glitches of the program can be fixed in the course of time. The women who are the most concerned group in this issue should be given the freedom of choice. Why not allow them to decide on matters of their primary concern?


These Church hollies are resorting to argumentum ad populum - to sway popular support rather than facts and reason. Thus, Catholic Church is now fast losing its grip to devotees and counting. They get out to put-up a sect of the same faith but with doctrine far from their old Church’s teachings.


A big population is good for the Church per se, but it does not sit well for women who are the ones risking lives during pregnancy. The international community has a report that one in every three women in Asia dies during pregnancy or in-time of delivery.


Thus, I am supporting the RH Bill for the above reasons. I understand the feelings of all women supporting it. Their unprecedented struggle for the Bill to become a law has finally convinced me that the prize at stake in this battle is worthy of the war they are fighting for!

The Gunman

Hole of Justice

By Peter G. Jimenea

The gunman is a friend

Last March 20, 2012, while the issue of unsolved media killings was once again brought out on line and on the airwaves (courtesy of the controversial family feud in the city) Atty. Dwight Trasadas, a co-host of the block-time television program Kape kag Isyu, received an alarming text message from one claiming to be a televiewer.

It reads; “Halong kamo taga medya concern lng, c “Tawi” (full name withheld) gntransaction kagab I sang isa ka tawo may tirohon naman. Ara sa Kape kag Isyu.”  Be careful media people, just a concern “Tawi” (alleged gunman) was transacted by a person last night to carry out another shooting of one in Kape kag Isyu.  


After receiving the forwarded message, I cannot accept it hook-line and sinker due to the name of the alleged gunman whom I consider a friend. As I don’t have his number, I spread the news to all contacts in the city and province of Iloilo.


An hour later my cellular phone rang identifying my caller as a close friend of “Tawi” from Passi City. He said; “Sir, bal-an ko indi niya ina mahimo sa imo kag sa grupo mo.” (Sir, I know he can’t do it to you and your group). Our discussion, however, lasted only for about ten minutes.
 

About half an hour later, I got another caller but this time it is “Tawi.” who denied his involvement in the news and asks if I can forward the message to him plus the cell number of the sender. A few minutes later he called back angrily-saying that somebody is just dragging his name to the issue.

Right on that very evening, I received lot of callers likewise suspecting that “Tawi” was dragged into this mess to divert public attention from the controversial family feud of a clan which lady member is fingering her lawyer-cousin as mastermind of the few unsolved crimes in the city.

The televiewer who sent that alarming message to my co-host, Atty. Trasadas doesn’t have the faintest idea that I know “Tawi” more than he does. Beside which, a friendly-group in this island substantiated the claim of “Tawi” that he had already reformed and living peacefully now.

Anyway, we are too far from that. We observe journalism ethics and had never harassed the guests of our show.  As columnist in The Daily Guardian and other weekly newspapers like Journal Visayas and the WV Outlook, my work are strictly confined only to issues, no stepping over-the-line of pardonable behavior by intruding into private lives.

 

The same is true with the workings of a co-host, Atty. Pet Melliza who is also a TNT columnist. Here are the other harmless co-hosts of the program, baby-faced lawyer Dwight Trasadas, inventor Larry Locara, broadcaster Joel Estochi, publisher Neonita Gobuyan and Princess Diesto, a neophyte in the show.

The texter should know that it is only for him and the group he wants to protect that what he did is good. He could have easily diverted the controversy to ICPO Director, P/Supt. Marieto Valerio for poor police-performance, but sad to say, he inadvertently overlooked this.

He fingered the wrong person as the would-be gunman. Luckily the gunman understands what a true friend is. Here’s a simple message for that texter to remember. A true friend is the best thing you can have and the nice thing you can be. Now you know what true friends mean in a real sense of the world. I’m sure Alex Vidal subscribes to this!

Thanks for the hollow concern anyway, I hope media practitioners will appreciate it, or else, you’ll get the spanking you deserved for being stupid. Well, make your day in this column, you asked for it.  Unlike me and Dirty Harry who ask others to make our day!

Drug Problem

Hole of Justice

By Peter G. Jimenea

Bitter-Logical-Solution

During Martial Law years, six Chinese nationals were caught for drug trafficking and were sentenced to death by firing squad. Army Major Camilo Montessa of the Judge Advocate General Office (JAGO) handed down the verdict.

But a top government official interceded in behalf of the five other convicts. They were eventually spared and only a certain Lim Seng suffered the death penalty by a firing squad. On why, the five others were exonerated, we have yet to know.

Few have the faintest idea that such intrusion by a government official in the case of the five convicts contributed a lot in shaping-up Narco-politics in this country. It is widely believe too, that it finally opened the floodgates for illegal drugs to become a national crisis

From 1970 down to the late 90s, illegal drugs proliferation ran parallel with corruption. Several years ago at Sariaya, Quezon, seven Chinese nationals who cannot speak or understand other languages have been caught loading tons of “shabu” in two vans.

Yet, two months after their arrest, a Cebuano judge is still pondering whether to grant bail or not. An eventual casualty was a Police Director General from Capiz, who was relieved from his post due to intercession for the release of these Chinese.

During the time of Pres. Joseph Estrada, another police, Gen. Dictador Alqueza, has seated as the national director of the Narcotics Command (NARCOM) for only a-week. His name was also linked to illegal drugs and was immediately relieved.

Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto was also once linked to illegal drugs which he vehemently denied. But a favorite adage of the old folks which says, “if there is smoke, there is fire,” nearly destroyed his political career.

Another national casualty was P/Supt. John Campos, killed while on his way home few years back. His death is said to be a drug-related killing. In Region 6, the death of Frederick Capasao, an anti-illegal drug agent and police officer Lamis, has transfigured that of Supt. Campos case - unsolved to date.

Due to corruptibility of our public officials, drug money has penetrated the inner circle of the government. It buys judges, prosecutors, police, military, politicians, local government officials, lawyers, courts clerk, witnesses and many others.

Before the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), a civilian anti-drug agency of the government, we often heard of police fighting each other as if fighting criminals on the street because of drug money.

Drug-money commands the protectors of illegal drugs like robots. It can dictate the tempo of elections and can drive addicts to kill-for-nothing. A widening disparity of the rich and the poor has fueled this mess and must be addressed by the government to curb drug proliferation.

In slum areas, the survival of the predominantly unemployed residents depends solely on part time jobs or employment without security of tenure. Arrested drug pushers in this area have always replacements.

Apprehended pusher-husband has a wife as immediate replacement. Arrest the wife and the children follow. This good source of big and immediate income can challenge law enforcers who can only do less to stop it.

Drug lords can only be alarmed by the threat of authorities knowing the law enforcers can get nothing from them as they keep no evidence. Big-players are compelled only to lie-low, spend additional for security, but to stop them never!

To stop the proliferation of illegal drugs, we have to kill the system that nurtures it – corruption. Congress should now pass a law that penalizes government officials found guilty of corruption with a minimum of 20 years flat - no rebate!

Except for Congresswoman Janet Garin of the First District, who among our four congressmen bragging to have balls can make the first step in moving this logical solution forward?

Hole of Justice: The Dragon Heads

Hole of Justice: The Dragon Heads: Hole of Justice by Peter Jimenea   U nderworld Empire (Part 5) The Chinese Warlords                                                   ...

Hole of Justice: The Dragon Heads

Hole of Justice: The Dragon Heads: Hole of Justice by Peter Jimenea   U nderworld Empire (Part 5) The Chinese Warlords                                                   ...

Hole of Justice: The Dragon Heads

Hole of Justice: The Dragon Heads: Hole of Justice by Peter Jimenea   U nderworld Empire (Part 5) The Chinese Warlords                                                   ...

The Dragon Heads

Hole of Justice
by Peter Jimenea
 
Underworld Empire (Part 5)
The Chinese Warlords

                                                    

 
Gen. Li Wen-Huan, commander of the Chinese Koumintang’s (KMT) Third Army who fled from Mao Tse-tung’s Communist victory in 1949 brought with him 10,000 troops to Burma and had been a major force in the Golden Triangle for nearly four decades. (Source” Bangkok Post)

A dragon with prominence in the Golden Triangle is Kuhn Sa, a leading opium warlord in a rare 1987 picture taken by a visiting foreign newspaper reporter. With 15,000 strong Shan United Army, he controls 50% of all opium grown in the region. (Source: Asia Week)

Europe was not spared. The first Chinese dragon head is Chung Mon, a ranking member of the 14K gang, dubbed “The Unicorn” a symbol of strength and magic in the Chinese underworld. He was murdered by Triad rivals in Amsterdam, March 3, 1975. (Source: Royal Hong Kong Police)

Tse-Chiu “Eddie” Chan, an ex-Hong Kong police sergeant who became the undisputed dragon head of New York’s Chinese crime world during the late 1970s. He fled a Federal investigation in 1984, and his whereabouts are unknown. (Source: The New York Times)

Ng Sik-ho, nicknamed “Limpy” for a battered leg that resulted from a Triad fight in his youth is one of Hong Kong’s dragon heads in 1970s. He is serving a 30-year sentence for drug trafficking. (Source: South China Morning Post)

Lo Hsing-Han, a Golden Triangle drug trafficker was spared from death sentence in 1980 by Burmese President Ne Win. Released from prison, he has reestablished prominence in the opium region by commanding several thousand soldiers under the banner “Shan States Volunteer Force.” (Source: Bangkok Post)

The Ma Boys: Ma Sik-yu, dubbed “The White Powder” Ma and his brother Ma Sik-chun, “The Golden” Ma, are among the largest international heroin traffickers now living in Taiwan. Both are wanted by the police in the British colony. (Source: South China Morning Post)

Lui Lok, a former Hong Kong police sergeant, fled corruption investigations, first to Canada and then to Taiwan. He is called “the 600 million-dollar man,” the estimated size of his fortune. He is one of the forty ex-Hong Kong police millionaires living in Taiwan. (Source: South China Morning Post)

It was Gen. Li’s one-arm- chemist from Taiwan who discovered the production of the best heroin in the world – the “China White.” It is sent to the Bamboo Gang Triad (Equivalent of the CIA) in Taiwan, who in turn forwards the same to the 14K Gang in Hong Kong for distribution worldwide.

During the heroin refining process, when the narcotic starts to boil, it stinks like a rotten file of garbage. The wind can drift the noxious fumes for some distance and could cause alarm to the nearby residents. The reason probably on why some Triads have established laboratories on ocean-going yachts.

The same is true with the processing of “shabu,” the poor-man’s cocaine. In densely populated areas, it is difficult to synthesize the drugs in a kitchen refinery without a neighbor noticing it or complaining to the police. Thus, authorities have discovered and raided a lot of kitchen-type shabu labs in Metro Manila.

Hong Kong was ceded by China to the British as war reparation after the ill-equipped Chinese army was defeated in the battle dubbed “The Opium Wars.” It was also the French, the Dutch and other Western countries led by the British who doped the millions of Chinese people with opium. The Chinese Triads are now returning the favor to the West with a vengeance!

 
Last issue: The Philippine Drug Problem

Underworld Empires (Part 4)

Hole of Justice
By Peter G. Jimenea

Underworld Empires (Part 4)

The Golden Triangle

In our previous topics we learned that the Golden Triangle is the mountainous mist-shrouded area comprised of the four Northern Provinces of Thailand, the Western fringe of Laos and the broad stretch of Northeast Burma.

The area is best suited for the cultivation of hush-poppy plants. Although the only usable product of a poppy is opium, it can be converted to an expensive and most-liked drugs by the American wealthy addicts – heroin.

Illegal drug is excitement and heaven for the rich but one way to escape reality by the poor. In the Philippines, we pay the services of doctors to preserve health. In big countries, celebrities hired doctors to prescribe only the drugs they need for vices.

Going back, most of the heroin comes from the opium produced by the different tribes living in these mountainous areas in Southeast Asia. In autumn of every year, tens of thousands of the farming-tribes plant millions of tiny poppy seeds in their respective fields.

Three months later, each poppy seed blossoms into a narrow stem nearly four feet tall, topped with brilliant large flower petals with colors ranging from neon orange, shocking pink and deep purples to blood reds.

During late November flowering of the poppy, hundreds of thousands of acres in these areas are drenched in stunning solid floral carpet of glorious colors. It is hard to imagine that a plant so beautiful has a product that can cause heartache and misery to millions of people!

It is from these flowers that the destructive effect of opium flows to Hong Kong, Bangkok and the neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, to Europe down to the streets of America. The process continued for thousands of years so as the increase in number of addicts.

After the poppies have blossomed into striking flower phase, the petals gradually drop to the ground and the green seed pod about the size and shape of a small egg is left standing. For reasons still unexplained by botanists, the green pod produces a thick white sap called opium.

The farmers have only few days in harvesting the pod with milky sap, thus, the entire family enters the field in the evening hours to cut the green pod with series of shallow incision. The sap oozes onto the outside where it congeals and later turns into a brownish-black color.

At sunrise, the farmers again enter the field to scrape the dark sap off the pod’s surface. Each poppy produces opium a little larger than a pea. It is wrapped into a poppy petal and then placed in a wooden box carried on a string around the worker’s neck.

Few hours later, the box is filled with the foul-smelling muddy sap, similar to bitter mold. To the hill tribes that produce the opium, it is their best cash-crop because they don’t have to leave their homes to sell it, warlords sent agents to the tribal villages to buy the product.

Unlike food crops, opium does not suffer rapid deterioration. It can be stored for a couple of years. Since there is no fear of losing the opium as time passes, hill tribe farmers can keep it if the market price is not good and wait until the price improves.

The ashes of poppy plants served as astringent fertilizer ideally suited for producing excellent yields. In the 70s Burma alone produced 900 tons a year, enough when processed into heroin to supply the United States heroin population for more than ten years!

For warlords and drug traffickers, the Golden Triangle is a goldmine. In fact, the best heroin in the world is “China White,” from the Golden Triangle. The Mafia, the Cocaine Cowboys of Latin America and Joseph Auguste Ricord, a Corsican head of the French Connection subscribed to this!

Next issue: The Chinese Warlords

Underworld Empires (Part 3)

Hole of Justice

By Peter G. Jimenea
 

Underworld Empires (Part 3)

The KMT Government of China

Dr. Sun yat sen, a senior Triad member and Charlie Soong, the International financier of the powerful Red Gang Triad and Gen. Chiang kai-shek of the Chinese army formed a new Republic in 1911. They were recognized by the doctor for their role in driving out the Barbarian Manchus from China.

Dr. Sun yat-sen estimated there were 35 million members of secret societies in China. Soon the Triads became a powerful group in the political and civic affairs of China. Rewards for their assistance were exclusive territories plying all vices without interference from the government.

As the Triads spread their control over China’s underworld as well as in Chinese communities around the world, Gen. Chiang gave them formal recognition and power in national politics. He dreamed to unified China and lead as the military chief of the new imperial government.

Gen. Chiang used the Triads as strong arm of his political party, the Koumintang or the KMT to attain his ambition.  The Triads began doing the dirty jobs for his official army who could not publicly be involved in. He promised the Triads unlimited criminal control in his government if they cooperated.

He ordered the abolition of labor unions, closure of newspapers considered leftist, the arrest of its leaders, spokesmen and the communist he considered critical to his administration. He also ordered the destruction of all Communist-led labor unions in Shanghai, then China’s largest city.

Big-eared Tu, a ruthless Chinese gangster and leader of Green Gang Triad who transfigured Al Capone’s meteoric rise to criminal power, entered into a big deal with Chiang to attack Shanghai. On April 12, 1927, they destroyed union halls, leftist sanctuaries and the massacre of Communist labor union leaders in just one day.

The Green Gang Triad head was awarded the rank of general in Chiang’s army. An accomplice leader of the Red Gang Triad was also appointed advisor to the nationalist government. The others became officers, soldiers, intelligence agents, businessmen and financiers in the new China.

In World War II, the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong in 1941 gave the Triads an unprecedented opportunity to solidify control over the black market and vice trades in the colony. The British early withdrawal forced the Japanese to play into the Triads hands in exchange for information and peace in the colony.

 In 1945, the British again took control of the colony but proved ineffective in its battle with the criminal societies. Their challenge to the Hong Kong triads ended with the latest events in Mainland China. Gen. Chiang knew that a showdown with the Communist armies sweeping from the north is inevitable.

A lot of China’s secret societies were mobilized by Chiang to stop Mao tze-tung’s revolutionary army but they all failed to halt the gathering momentum of the Communist. Sensing imminent defeat, Gen. Chiang and most of his generals fled to Formosa (now Taiwan) in 1949.

After the fall of the KMT, Mainland China closed its door to the outside world. But 20 years later, the outside world was surprised when China opened its door in 1969 as a nation with atomic power. Back to Chiang, his generals who feared the ruthless Red Guards of Mao moved to Hong Kong. But KMT Gen. Li Wan Huan and troops fled to Burma by crossing the China border.

For fear that communism will sooner or later expand, the United States sent the CIA to Burma with financial and firepower support to help Gen. Li and his 2000 army. But Mao’s Red Guards running after Gen. Li and troops in the boundary of Burma, has forced the latter to move deeper into the boundaries of Laos and Thailand.

Next issue: The Golden Triangle

Hole of Justice: Underworld Empires (Part 2)

Hole of Justice: Underworld Empires (Part 2): Hole of Justice By Peter G. Jimenea Underworld Empires (Part 2) The Chinese Triads The Chinese secret societies have more than three hun...

Underworld Empires (Part 2)

Hole of Justice

By Peter G. Jimenea

Underworld Empires (Part 2)

The Chinese Triads

The Chinese secret societies have more than three hundred years of history behind it. They are represented by equilateral triangle, each side signifies one of the three basic Chinese concept of Heaven, Earth and Man.

Members are bound by blood oaths, with pledge to overthrow the conqueror of their country and restore the Ming dynasty which previously ruled China. But the modern Chinese Triad society was founded in the 17^th century 1,500 years before Christ.

The Chinese hated the despot rule of the Barbarian Manchus from Mongolia who put an iron grip on the Northern two-thirds of China. But the continued rebellion in the South has disturbed the Barbarians despot ruling in the North.

An anti-Manchu sentiment in the South was initiated at the Foochow monastery where 128 militant Buddhist monks organized the local population into pockets of resistance. In 1674, the Barbarians consolidated their hold on Northern China with plan to invade the South.

They sent a contingent to attack the monastery but according to legend, despite the relentless Barbarians assault with their superior armed troops, the monks who developed kung fu as self-defense had held them out for three weeks.

But a traitor monk helped the Barbarian troops disguised as water-boys for the rebels entered the monastery’s secret underground tunnel and surprised the defenders. Only eighteen monks had escaped the slaughter but were chased by the invaders and another thirteen were also killed.

The five monks with noble purpose who survived the onslaught are credited in founding the first Triad society. They vowed to overthrow the despot rule of the Barbarians and restore the Chinese imperial government.

Over the years, the Triads developed complex initiation rituals combining the method of astral worship of the Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian philosophies, all mixed with mythology. Soon the secret societies spread like fever in Southern China.

They were instrumental in launching the seventeen-year “Taiping Rebellion” which resulted to over twenty million deaths and devastation of 600 cities. Triads also launched the unsuccessful “Red Turban Uprisings” which ended in their eventual defeat.

More than one-million were beheaded by the Barbarians. During this campaign of death, the Triads fled China to Hong Kong. The exodus was so great. In 1847, British officials in Hong Kong estimated that nearly three-quarters of the colony population were Triad members.

By mid 1800s, faced by possible extinction, a large part of these Chinese secret societies turned to illegal activities like piracy, smuggling, extortion and others. Some Mainland Triads sent their members abroad to protect the various kind of vice and crime among homeless settlers.

Triads had almost all criminal elements but by late 1800 they became legitimate as nationalistic organization. The bulk of money from the many popular Triads came from illegal sources but without it, the Mainland Triads would never have withstood the Barbarians onslaught!

Triads realized that enormous profits are derived from underworld business. Many members turned away from their political belief and concentrated mainly in criminal enterprise. In 1911 the Triads were able to overthrow the Barbarians and Dr. Sun yat sen, a senior Triad member, formed the first government.

Next issue – The Triads under a New Government.

The Underworld Empires (Part 1)

Hole of Justice

By Peter G. Jimenea

Underworld Empires (Part 1)

The Heroin Trade

When I started writing about illegal drugs in 1994, nobody inquires as they knew nothing about it. Now they do, after illegal drugs have become a global crisis. This story refers to the activities of a secret society known as the Chinese Triads. 

With the exception of the hardworking and honest vast majority of Chinese who have my great respect, there is no intent to slight them. They deserved praises as Chinese race and culture are at the forefront since the inception of written history.

This delves only on the unfortunate segment of the Chinese race- the Chinese Triads. They have a systematic and vicious control of large, illicit empires in the criminal world from the East to the West. The backbone of this organization is - illegal drugs!

The Triads are virtually unknown to the underworld business until the mid 50s. Auguste Joseph Ricord, a Corsican mastermind of the French connection, was by then the king of heroin trade from Turkey to Marseilles and into New York until the mid-70s.

Heroin addiction, however, declined at the entry of the Latin-American Cocaine Cowboys in the underworld business. A research by US investigative journalist Gerard Posner revealed that the Cocaine Cowboys earned enormous profit from this trade.

But not until the advent of the 80s when the Hong Kong Triads took control of the heroin trade in the US with their “China white” product coming from the Golden Triangle, the mountainous mist-shrouded areas in Southeast Asia fit for the cultivation of hush-poppy plants.

The Golden Triangle is consisted of four Northern provinces of Siam (now Thailand), the Eastern fringe of Laos, and a broad stretch of Northeast Burma (now Myanmar). The Chinese are also credited for the fast development of Hong Kong into a third-largest financial center after New York and London.

Hong Kong has become a melting pot of world’s businesses and had the world’s most profitable bank – the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. The most dominant Triad gang in Hong Kong before it was returned to Mainland China in 1997 was the 14K with over 30,000 members in the colony alone.

As a Hong Kong Police Superintendent disclosed, the Chinese Triads invented organized crime. And as he is said to have remarked, “They are the best at it. These secret societies have made it into big business but they are absolutely ruthless.”

“The Chinese criminal syndicates make billions of dollars a year from all regular businesses of organized crime – gambling, prostitution, extortion, loan sharking, protection rackets, guns-for-hire, political and civic corruption. But there is one thing that makes them unique – heroin!

They controlled most of the world’s heroin supply coming from the Golden Triangle, a mountainous patch of land covering parts of Laos, Thailand and Burma that produces more than 70 percent of the world’s opium and heroin. This is an advantage other criminal organizations don’t have.”

But where did these Chinese Triads originate? How did they become warlord of crime in the underworld? How did they make the Mafia look as bunch of school kids in uniform when it comes to atrocities in criminal activities?

Next issue, the Origin of The Triads.