The date was Dec. 31, 2004. A shabu laboratory in Ulas, Davao city along the highway to Toril had just been raided. The raiding team was composed of agents from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) of Region XI led by its head Wilkins Villanueva. Some elements that joined the team came from PDEA’s national headquarters in Manila.
The arrest and its subsequent activities happened in quick succession. First of all, hundreds of kilos of high-grade shabu were recovered from the laboratory. Six Chinese nationals were killed during the raid. Apprehended were eleven Chinese nationals, some of them were working as shabu chemists.
And that was the major problem. All the passports of the apprehended eleven were in the possession of the Chinese businessman Michael Yang. It was believed that he was the owner of the shabu laboratory. And that was the other major problem – Yang was a close friend of the city mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
Given that scenario, what would the mayor do to keep the apprehended eleven from squealing on the identity of the laboratory’s proprietor that could also potentially link the mayor? There was no other solution in the Duterte playbook – kill them all.
And so in the afternoon of that day, the mayor’s driver-bodyguard Sonny Buenaventura called up some of the leading assassins of the Davao Death Squad to a meeting at Caltex Starmart near SM in Ecoland. He relayed the instructions from Duterte: kill all the eleven, and dispose of them in a clean manner that no traces of their remains could be detected.
That night, the kill plan was twofold. First, the eleven Chinese nationals had to be handed over to the DDS by PDEA. Wilkins Villanueva would call Buenaventura at 8 p.m. The assassins should be on standby.
At 10 p.m., policeman SPO4 Val Carillo – for the DDS assassins were all police officers – called to say that he already had with him the eleven Chinese nationals. The assassins waited at the same Caltex Starmart. And then a dark blue van arrived. Carillo alighted from the van and spoke with the assassins. Having accomplished the turn over, the assassins then drove the van. The destination – Laud Quarry.
Inside the van, the four policemen who boarded saw that the eleven laboratory workers were hogtied and blindfolded with masking tape. Four were women. Before the stroke of midnight, the van arrived at Laud Quarry. The quarry’s owner, policeman SPO4 Ben Laud, was waiting.
First, they were asked about their passports. None had it with them. Their passports were with Michael Yang, they said. Of the eleven, one could speak halting English and Tagalog. This man was Allan Sy. He offered to one of the DDS leaders that he had a cellphone hidden between his balls. He said he could call his wife and bring in 3 million pesos as their ransom.
Hence, an urgent call was made to Buenaventura, to relay the ransom offer to the city mayor. A few minutes later, Buenaventura returned the call. Mayor Duterte’s reply was – it is not wise to agree on the ransom proposal for it could be a trap. Duterte was true to form – he was protective of his role in the Davao shabu ring. Sy could spill the beans on Yang.
Then Sy made another offer. If the two female chemists would be released, he would produce 200 million pesos to be paid in four installments of 50 million pesos each week in the next one-month period. Sy said the money would come from Macau.
And so again, a call was relayed to Mayor Duterte. The reply came – do not buy the money deal; he said he will take care of the issue of money to the four assassins because he had in his disposal huge amounts of intelligence funds.
DDS force multipliers were on hand at the quarry to dig the mass grave that was about 8 feet deep. It was past 2 a’m in the morning of New Year’s Day Jan. 1, 2005.
Sy was shot first in the head twice using a .22 caliber pistol with silencer. His body was tossed first. Then eight were shot on the head twice as they were lying down on the ground. And then the last two were finished. The bloodbath ended at about 4 a.m.
The assassin who shot Sy and the eight was the team leader. His name was SPO4 Arturo Lascañas. The one who shot the last two was the police officer SPO1 Jim Abragan Tan. Then the men went home to rest and celebrate the New Year with their families.
At about 1 p.m, Buenaventura called to ask Lascañas and Tan to see him at the same Caltex Starmart. Buenaventura came driving the city mayor’s official City Hall service vehicle, a Toyota 4×4 pick-up. Inside, Buenaventura handed Lascañas and Tan five bundles of bank-fresh money in one thousand peso denominations. It was 500,000 pesos. Buenaventura told the two: the money was courtesy of Rodrigo Duterte. The spoil was divided among the three of them, and for the two other policemen who handled the cleanup operations at the quarry.
The following day Jan. 2, Buenaventura called Lascañas with some good news, that Mayor Duterte would increase Lascañas’ monthly allowance in the Davao Death Squad to 50,000 pesos. It was just all in a day’s work.
What is the role of the PDEA? In Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, it is the PDEA’s task to arrest any elective official involved in the proceeds of the trafficking of dangerous drugs. Such officials can be removed from office and perpetually disqualified from holding any elective or appointive position.
Wilkins Villanueva did not do his job. But he did one job well – to keep the secret about Duterte’s ties with the drugs production in Davao city of Michael Yang. And for hiding Duterte’s identity, his reward came: PDEA Director General from May 2020 to the end of Duterte’s presidential term.
After all, his appointment was preceded by such similar rewards. In July 2016, Duterte had appointed Isidro Lapeña as PDEA Director General. Lapeña too had kept the secret about Duterte: the abduction activities of the Davao Death Squad were his brainchild as Davao City Police Office chief.
Lapeña went on to become Commissioner of the Bureau of Customs. Under his watch, a shipment of 11 billion pesos worth of shabu hidden inside magnetic filters was found in a warehouse in General Mariano Alvarez, Cavite. Like a true Duterte untouchable, Lapeña refused to show up at the Senate probe. The Duterte secret must be kept. And for which he got another reward: director general of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). Even Duterte’s Department of Justice halted the probe on Lapeña and the shabu shipment.
Succeeding Lapeña at PDEA from September 2017 to May 2020 was another retired police officer assigned in Davao city during the time of Bato dela Rosa– Aaron Aquino. This was the police officer who had exported the Davao killing template to Central Luzon in 2016. Aquino made Central Luzon Duterte’s new killing field, overtaking Metro Manila’s kill records by 2019. This was the so-called “one time big time” killing sprees in Bulacan and Pampanga. He too had kept the Duterte secret, the reason for his appointment.
In the tradition of appointing Duterte’s co-criminals to high government positions, Wilkins Villanueva became a national VIP. Remember Allan Sy who was killed in Laud Quarry with the eleven Chinese nationals? Twice Villanueva at PDEA detained his widow Jed Sy. Asked by the House Quad Committee in its last hearing, Villanueva said he does not know Mrs. Jed Sy.
The Quadcomm cited him in contempt. Villanueva was not telling the truth. But that is the role of all Duterte subalterns – to lie about the real Rodrigo Duterte.
The Quadcomm did right in citing Villanueva. But that is only the tip of the iceberg. The real iceberg that has long lurked below the public radar is who Duterte is and how he has made criminals of our public servants. Until such time that Duterte is made to stand before the law, the Quadcomm remains just an entertaining – to use a Davao Death Squad lingo – showtime.
Has anyone in the Quadcomm even thought of doing exhumation work at Laud Quarry? That would be one big corroboration that the Duterte mass murder had indeed taken place.
Then men like Wilkins Villanueva could go to jail. With Rodrigo Duterte.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
