THE MAKING OF A MINDANAO MAFIA
By JOSE TORRES JR.

(This article, published by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, has been nominated as finalist in this year's Jaime V. Ongpin Journalism Awards for Explanatory Reporting. The winners of the Awards will be announced on July 1.)


The Kuratong Baleleng began as an anti-communist vigilante group but has become a diversified kidnapping, smuggling, and extortion syndicate with close links to officials in Northwestern Mindanao and elsewhere.


ZALDY (not his real name) was 17 years old when he first killed a man. Today, some 12 years or so later, he says he has lost count of many people he has killed. "It's just like killing a cow," says Zaldy, who has spent seven years in the National Bilibid Prisons. "There's always that last gasp of breath before dying. You'll get used to it."

But Zaldy apparently got tired of killing. After his release from prison in the mid-1990s, he went home to Mindanao, seeking a "new life." He tried farming in a remote village in Zamboanga del Norte, but "got bored" after only a few weeks. Lacking the means to survive, Zaldy remembered the advice of friends he met in prison: "If you're desperate for work, go to Ozamiz and ask for help from the Kuratong Baleleng."

For most Filipinos, the Kuratong Baleleng is that notorious group of bank robbers that met a bloody end in a supposed shootout with the police one May morning in 1995 in Quezon City. But down in Ozamiz City, in northwestern Mindanao, Kuratong is said to be well-loved — and well-connected, even if no one denies that it is a criminal syndicate. The mayor, Reynaldo 'Aldong' Parojinog, is a son of the group's founder, the late Octavio 'Ongkoy' Parojinog. Some people even say Aldong became titular head of the group, when his older brother Renato or 'Nato,' then a provincial board member, was killed in February 2002.

Mayor Aldong seems to have chosen to ignore the whispers about his current connections with the Kuratong, concentrating instead on a personal drive against criminality in his city. In a 1999 interview, however, he admitted that he was once part of the group, and that his father had founded it. When asked how many Kuratong members there were in Ozamiz, Aldong said, "Almost everybody." But then he had yet to be elected mayor of Ozamiz at the time.

Aldong Parojinog, however, is not the only one who would rather not talk about Kuratong Baleleng — at least not openly. Misamis Occidental Gov. Loreto Leo S. Ocampo refuses to be interviewed about the group, although he says the notoriety of the Kuratong Baleleng is a myth created by the media. Another article about the group will only "boost the ego of its leaders" and make them stage new criminal activities to make the myth live, the governor says. Misamis Occidental Rep. Ernie D. Clarete, known to be a critic of the group and its alleged leaders, also thumbed down a request to be interviewed for this article. He says he has been receiving threats from the Kuratong.

Zaldy, the self-confessed murderer, sounds like he regrets ever encountering the group as well. He had followed the advice of his jailmates and looked up the Kuratong in Ozamiz.

With the help of his newfound friends, Zaldy worked as a barker at a bus station, picking pockets on the side. Then he began pushing drugs and extorting money from businessmen. He remitted his earnings to his "handlers" who gave him a generous share of the loot. He was later asked to join store robberies and truck hijackings. Recalls Zaldy: "It was exciting and fun and there was no shortage of money."

But Zaldy soon got bored with that life as well. He again went home, built a house, and bought a small piece of land. One day, however, he was visited by two men who told him, "You must go back to Ozamiz immediately. Work is waiting for you." That same day, Zaldy fled to a nearby town. But his "friends" found him again after several weeks. It was then, Zaldy says, that he realized there was no escape. "There is no getting out of the Kuratong Baleleng," he says.

Fear has become Kuratong Baleleng's most effective weapon. "They have no qualms in killing perceived enemies," says a local journalist who asked not to be named. "They are untouchables." This perception is fueled by the fact that authorities refuse to even investigate criminal activities allegedly perpetrated by the group.

According to a 2001 briefing paper on the Kuratong Baleleng by the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), "several national and local government officials reportedly provide protection to the group." It also describes the Kuratong as "one of the many criminal syndicates being controlled and used by powerful individuals for financial, political, and even personal undertakings."

"Neutralizing the group per se would be child's play," says the ISAFP, "but to uncover the entire expanse of the networks controlled by these unseen hands would prove to be a very difficult task."


IT HAD been the military that created the Kuratong Baleleng in 1986. The military wanted a vigilante organization that would counter the growing influence of communist guerillas in the provinces of Misamis Occidental, Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur, the first guerilla front of the Communist Party of the Philippines in Mindanao. Kuratong is actually a traditional bamboo instrument used to call villagers for a meeting or to alert them of the approach of enemies; baleleng means young lady, although it is also used as a term of endearment. The Kuratong Baleleng, or the "darling bell," became a group that would inform soldiers of the presence of rebels.

Army Maj. Franco Calanog, who formally organized the Kuratong Baleleng, put the organization under the supervision of the Philippine Army's 101st Battalion based in Misamis Occidental. Calanog appointed Ongkoy Parojinog as the "chairman" of the organization. Its first members were militiamen from three urban poor barangays known collectively as Lawis or "sulod (inside)" in Ozamiz City. But they were said to have done double duty as Kuratong and as protector of Ongkoy's illegal activities, which reportedly included robberies in the provinces of Siquijor and Misamis Occidental. Ongkoy, however, was also known for his generosity and was dubbed the "Robin Hood of Lawis."

One local journalist says the Parojinog family "would help everybody in need." He describes the Parojinogs as "simple people" who are "approachable" and have a "soft heart." This is partly why Aldong Parojinog won the 2001 mayoral elections by a landslide.

But it was Nato who assumed the leadership of the Kuratong Baleleng after five soldiers of the 466th Company of the Philippine Constabulary killed Ongkoy in September 1990 during a cockfight. All the suspects in Ongkoy's slay were later killed one after the other. Calanog himself was killed in a drug bust operation by the National Bureau of Investigation in the early 1990s.

"The group was very effective as a counter-insurgency organization," states the ISAFP briefing paper dated April 20, 2001. "But with the decline of the insurgency threat, the Kuratong Baleleng group was officially disbanded in June 1988. Without military supervision, the group rapidly metamorphosed into an organized criminal syndicate. A lot of kidnappings, robberies, smuggling, murders, and extortion were attributed to the group."

Other criminal groups also started using the Kuratong Baleleng name to ride on its notoriety. "This explains why almost all crimes were traced to the (organization)," says the ISAFP.

The "real" Kuratong Baleleng, however, began branching out, operating not only in Mindanao — Misamis Occidental, Misamis Oriental, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibuguey, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Cagayan de Oro City — but also in Cebu City, Metro Manila and neighboring provinces.

The Kuratong Baleleng eventually splintered into three major groups. The original group of Ongkoy Parojinog based in Ozamiz City and adjacent provinces was believed to have focused on extortion and illegal gambling. Another group led by sons Nato and Aldong operated in Metro Manila and other big cities and specialized in bank and armored car robberies and kidnappings. A third headed by Ongkoy's nephew, Carlito 'Dodo Miklo' Calasan, concentrated on robberies, but would later venture into other illegal activities.

Several breakaway groups later emerged, including the Kuratong Baleleng I or the Wilson Soronda group, the Kuratong Baleleng II or the Robert Ramos/Edla Oliver group, the Socrates Aguilar group, the Joedisil Siong group and the Ozamiz Boys group. It was Soronda's group that got riddled with bullets in Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City in 1995.

Among the many crimes the ISAFP attributes to the Kuratong Baleleng are the P2 million robbery of Solid Bank in Tangub City in 1988, the P12 m Monte de Piedad armored van robbery on Roxas Blvd in 1990, the P5 million heist at an RCBC bank in Pampanga, and the P12 million Traders Royal Bank robbery in Buendia in 1991.

The ISAFP also says Kuratong was behind the smuggling of 40,000 sacks of rice and 28,000 sacks of white sugar unloaded in Ozamiz City on June 25, 1999, an undetermined number of sacks of rice shipped to Cebu City on June 26, 1999, 40,000 sacks or rice unloaded in Ozamiz City on June 27, 1999, and 170,000 sacks of imported rice and 5,000 cases of blue-seal cigarettes unloaded in Ozamiz City port from February 1 to March 10, 1999.

In addition, the ISAFP has linked the group to the transport of illegal drugs into the country from Malaysia via the country's southern backdoor in partnership with the Taiwanese Triad. It says Kuratong has a shabu factory in a secret tunnel in Barangay Tinago in Ozamiz City while protection money from Chinese businessmen continues to be collected. The group, says the ISAFP, is still into gunrunning, gun-for-hire services and massive extortion.

Other Kuratong watchers say the latest innovation in the group's activities is the establishment of lending agencies that also serve as an intelligence network for the group.

Joint operatives of the defunct AFPCIG and CAPCOM arrested Nato Parojinog in Cainta, Rizal, on April 30, 1993. Aldong and another brother, Ricardo or 'Ardot' surrendered to Brig. Gen. Dominador Salac, former ISAFP chief, in Camp Aguinaldo shortly afterwards. Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) agents gunned down Calasan in Cebu City in 1993.

Two years later, Nato, Aldong and Ardot Parojinog were back in Ozamiz, the charges of assault and bank robbery filed against them dismissed for lack of evidence. Nato ran for Congress in 1998 but was defeated by Hilario Ramiro. He became provincial board member of Misamis Occidental in 2001. Aldong, a high school dropout, became president of the federated Association of Barangay Councils and later city councilor before he was elected mayor.


SHORT and beer-bellied, Aldong Parojinog may not look like the chief executive of any city, even if it happens to be in a far corner of Mindanao. But Aldong, who in 1995 was the second most wanted man in the country, with a P500,000 price on his head, commands respect in Ozamiz, not in the least because of his determination to clean up the city in more ways than one.

Barely three weeks after he assumed office, Aldong launched a cleanliness campaign that resulted to the classification of the city as the fourth cleanest in Region 10, from a consistent record of being the dirtiest. He also convinced his supporters that it would be for Ozamiz's good if not one of them were taken in as city government employees, even as casuals. Aldong's flagship program is to trim the local government.

But the son of Kuratong Baleleng's founder also told journalist Merpu Roa in an interview, "I am committed to even use the whip if necessary as proof of my determination to curb the city's rising criminality and illegal drug trade."

Roa observed that petty crimes dipped to low levels after Mayor Aldong warned both offenders and their parents that they will be dealt with accordingly. The mayor issued stronger warnings to druglords and illegal drug peddlers. In an address after his election, Aldong vowed to even run after his relatives and friends if they were ever caught engaging in illegal activities.

Businessmen acknowledge that Aldong is gaining the support of the usually apathetic people of Ozamiz. Several surveys conducted by Freeman Mindanao, a regional daily newspaper, showed the people giving approval ratings to Reynaldo for focusing on the city's crime situation, illegal drug trade, garbage and drainage problems. Even the Roman Catholic Church has given the mayor a "breathing space" so he could "prove himself."

Aldong Parojinog now leads policemen in arresting suspected petty criminals. He believes his small victories would usher in a new era of peace and order and vowed an "all-out war" against criminals, the same phrase used by a political ally of Aldong, then President Joseph Estrada, in declaring war against Muslim insurgents in 2000.


POLITICS may not be the only thing linking the Ozamiz mayor with the ousted president, if Indian national Danny Devnani, manager of "Club 419" (later changed to Club IBC), is to be believed. In August 23, 2001, Devnani told the Senate that Estrada had links to Kuratong Baleleng, through Aldong's older brother, Nato.

Devnani was the manager of Club 419, an exclusive joint in Greenhills believed to be owned by Estrada. In a sworn statement, Devnani said he saw Renato, five or six times between 1996 and 2000 in the company of Estrada's close friend, Charlie 'Atong' Ang, and a certain Eddie Boy Villanueva. Devnani also said he had been pressured at the time by persons close to Estrada and Senator Panfilo Lacson, former National Police chief and PAOCTF head, to engage in kidnap-for-ransom activities so that he could pay off his gambling debts.

In a 15-page affidavit, Devnani said ex-basketball star Arnulfo Tuadles and Kuratong Baleleng member Joel Arnan told him Lacson had "ordered" the killing of 11 suspected Kuratong members in 1995. Devnani quoted Tuadles and Arnan as saying the group had "wanted to assassinate Estrada and Lacson because of the rubout," but subsequent negotiations between the group and Estrada's emissary, Villanueva, averted it. "The deal that was brokered was the Kuratong Baleleng would be allowed to commit kidnappings for ransom, and the group of Lacson and Ang would supply the victims," said Devnani.

Devnani said he tried to pass onto Estrada the same information. But when he was granted an audience in Malacañang on July 4, 1999, Devnani said Estrada "did not want to listen." Devnani said Estrada instead gave him a P3 million check dated July 2, 1999.

By then Tuadles and Arnan were dead. Tuadles was shot to death in Club 419 in 1996, while Arnan was arrested and killed in 1997. Nato, meanwhile, would get to live three more years, before being felled by assassins' bullets in 2002.

The Parojinogs blamed Nato's murder on local political feuds. But news reports at the time raised the possibility that before he was killed, Nato was about to reveal new information that would implicate Lacson as principal player in the 1995 killing of members of Soronda's group. Years earlier, the Ombudsman had downgraded the charges against Lacson in the Kuratong case, meaning he was no longer among the principals. But there was still a case against Lacson and other generals, and when Nato was killed, the Supreme Court was deliberating whether Lacson, who has declared his intentions to run for president in 2004, would have to stand trial.

Lacson has retorted that the attempt to link him to the Parojinog killing is "stupid and insensible." Nato's death and the Kuratong Baleleng case are not related, he said. "My fellow police officers and I have suffered enough," the senator added. "Some people are hell-bent on putting me away for good using this case and a series of other fabricated, (and) poorly executed cases."

In any case, a congressman from Mindanao says the number of people who attended the funeral of Nato is a good indicator that the Kuratong remains alive — and everywhere. He says, "People from everywhere, even from as far as Manila, were there. It was a show of force. The Kuratong Baleleng is an organized group, which has lot of connections with the police and the military."

The congressman says the Kuratong can be a force to reckon with in 2004 "depending on the political alignments in the national level." The lawmaker is himself counting on the support of the group. He says there are already several layers of Kuratong Baleleng "operators" up to the national level.

An Ozamiz-based journalist also says the Kuratong Baleleng "can deliver in 2004, but only in the local level." He says among the Parojinog brothers, only the late Nato had the ambition to run for a provincial position. "Aldong has ambitions only in the local level," says the journalist.

So far, Ozamiz residents say they are pleased with Mayor Aldong's performance, noting that he seems to be making good his pledge to rid the city of hoodlums. But there are those who say Kuratong has never stopped recruiting new members among local petty criminals in Ozamiz, and that the new recruits are trained in the city until they qualify for bigger and more sensitive assignments in other provinces.

Some Kuratong watchers say that these days, there are at least nine criminal gangs affiliated with the group: the Bana Gang, Bularon Gang, Daroy Gang, Francisco Gang, Ochagovia Gang, Solid Gang, Pagente Gang, Cenas Gang and Bronze Gang. A subgroup is said to have invested in commercial malls, computer stores, construction companies, hotels and restaurants, pubs and karaoke bars, but only so that these could serve as "fronts" for illegal operations.

Zaldy, the ex-convict who tried to leave the group, may be in any one of these gangs. Or he could have escaped again. Or he could be dead. In an abbreviated phone call several months ago, he told this writer: "I am back in Ozamiz with my old job. Wish me luck. Don't call this number, this is not my phone."

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