THE LONE arrested suspect in the Hannah Pawnshop heist recently claimed to the local media in Davao City last March 6 that the members of the group were told by their leaders that one of the goals of the robbery is to “stir up trouble in Davao.”
Somehow, suspect Johnny Dehito Bulawan presented a “conspiracy theory to allegedly destabilize the city and disrupt peace with possible political undertones.” Who could be behind this “conspiracy?”
With the raging political enmity between the strongest opposition group led by former President and former Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte of Davao City, and former ally President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., it can easily be deduced that only the Marcos, Jr. and Speaker Martin Romualdez alliance has the compelling interest to destabilize the city’s peace. And rightly so because Marcos, Jr. and Romualdez’s political union is the one likely to benefit from the disrupted peace.
But in war, be it in politics or in one that is fought with arms and bullets, it is very crucial that all kinds of strategies have to be in place and ready to be harnessed even if it is only intended to win a particular battle.
And there are even times a war protagonist has to sacrifice part of its own assets just to attain total victory or at least a portion thereof.
In other words, while the Marcos Jr.-led group can readily deny that it has a hand in the so-called “conspiracy” to destroy Davao’s accolade as the most peaceful, safest and most livable in the whole of Southeast Asia its “brains” could possibly be entertaining the idea that the crime spike is “managed.” Meaning, those who are quick to attribute the phenomenon to those out to erase the Duterte from the political arena could have thought of applying such a scheme.
Yes, if the political enemies of Davao City’s ruling clan have made the grievous mistake of intentionally spiking the city’s crime rate, for certain it is very fatal to their ambition to wipe out the former President from the country’s political map.
Conversely, it would be similarly disastrous to the presently acknowledged strongest opposition group if it is the one who orchestrated the steep crime hike, if only to have the blame heaped on its political enemies. The negative impact could likely boomerang on them both in the local and national political scenes.
And why are some people entertaining the idea that the rise in criminality is not attributable to the forces against the ruling political clan in Davao City? Well, the choice of target victim of the latest sensational crime committed – the Hannah pawnshop heist – was somewhat off. The “brains” should have chosen another establishment, the name of which has a ring to it that has a national, or even global, reach.
And believe you us. The job of spiking the city’s crime rate is emanating from the Dutertes’ adversaries, it is quite intriguing that they contracted the job to a “criminal group for hire” based in Ozamiz City. Moreover, the “brains” could have instructed the contracted group leaders to be extremely careful in talking of subjects that could possibly lead to the identification of the real “brains.”
But no; based on the arrested suspect’s statement to the local media, he heard from the group’s leader and his colleagues as well, that the contract to destabilize Davao City’s peace has its “political undertones.” Meaning, the proponent was reckless enough not to demand the utmost secrecy of identities.
It appears, however, that no such strict precaution of hiding the identity of the proponent was imposed. What with what appears as very casual mention of the group’s leader to his hired perpetrators of one important goal of the job.
It may be recalled that there were earlier speculations coming from Davao City’s political leaders that the sudden rise in crimes in the city could have been the result of the political squabble of former President Duterte and the current President.
Davao City’s very peaceful environment is a source of pride of the local leadership and the Davaoenos themselves. Hence, it is possible that disrupting the city’s peace could also diminish the seeming political invincibility of the Dutertes both at the local and national arenas.
It is possibly this assumption that the local officials led by a Duterte scion, readily speculated that there is no group that could have resorted to this kind of action to bring the Dutertes down but that of the President of the Philippines.
But again the suspected orchestrators could also turn the table on the city’s leadership. After all, by lowering the guard against criminals – intentionally or not – some political gains could be attained. Chances are, they suspect that this was what happened.
These possible scenarios of the city’s crime rise remind us of a piece of history with certain similarities. It is one of the most guarded secrets of the First World War. The secret was this:
The belligerents in that war were Great Britain, France, and Germany. The United States was an ally of both Britain and France. But the US did not join the fight in the war theaters. Instead, they continued to sell arms to the two countries to sustain their fight against Germany. The US sent the war armament through the ship M/S Lusitania, which also continued to carry tourists to European countries.
Of course Britain very much wanted the US to join in the fighting. But it did not. So towards the end of the second year of the war, British agents sabotaged Lusitania by attaching a powerful explosive under its hull shortly before leaving the US. During that voyage, thousands of tons of war materiel were loaded to be sold to Britain and France. There were also a huge number of American passengers on board. It was during the voyage that the bomb at the ship’s hall exploded, destroying the ship and armaments and killing hundreds of American passengers.
Believing that the perpetrators were German soldiers on board submarines, the US immediately joined the war by sending soldiers to fight on the battlefield.
It was only after more than fifty years since the end of the First World War that one of the British soldier agents who planted the bombs on Lusitania exposed the secret while on his death bed.
Now that was an imposed destruction on an ally with the intention of attaining an objective beneficial to a desired goal.
We hope the Davao City situation will not end up similar.
