No matter what others say, many people in Duljo-Fatima will always assert that his death was the result of a rubout, that he was silenced because he had too many protectors in high places that now felt uneasy with the coming of a tough-talking, non-nonsense president.
Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz, according to a boyhood friend who still lives near the 12-building compound where his body now lies in state, was so dirt poor as a child that he had to stop schooling at an early age. He spent his boyhood in a house literally beside a creek full of human waste.
Something apparently happened while he was at the Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa a decade or so later because he was released despite a long prison sentence, and from there on, rose steadily to eventually become Drug Dealer No. 2 in all of Central Visayas, amassing untold wealth and, with it, building a kind of Robin Hood-like following among his neighbors and peers, both drug-users and the clean.
It would seem that nothing would happen in his beloved barangay of Duljo-Fatima without his blessings. Even the last elections or so I am told. He is alleged to have ordered everyone in the barangay to vote for this mayoralty candidate over another, the day before elections. Turning the tables as it were, according to my source.
And now he is dead. But wait, my source tells me that he did leave a list of people who protected him, including politicians. But why no news about this? Does this give credence to the belief that Jaguar was silenced?
Writ large, by the looks of it, the promise of incoming President Rodrigo Duterte to rid the country of drug lords and criminals within six months is fast becoming doable.
All it took was this one presidential candidate to speak in no uncertain terms that he could do it. The surprise is that even before Duterte is to sit in Malacañang, the killings have already begun.
This makes me, as I’m sure also many of you dear readers, wonder why it had to take this long to get this many drug lords to either surrender or be killed even in broad daylight.
Jaguar’s death may leave many questions unanswered forever, and the alleged connections to politicians and police protectors will never be exposed.
President Rodrigo Duterte is set to take over in eight day’s time. But there are still many more of these drug lords lurking in the shadows.
If the allegations are true that the season to silence these drug lords has begun, here is my one piece of advice to all of you who made life miserable for millions of drug-crazed Filipinos and their families: Start writing down your memoirs and your exposes.
Take this to heart: Dead men tell no tales. You survived this long with your illegal trade because you had protectors all over the place. Expose them now before your secret dies with you. Better still, live a long life, no matter if in the prison island that President Duterte is sure to build very soon, by exposing those who made your trade possible and flourishing through all these years when we had presidents that vowed to end your trade.
Who knows the courts might even assign you and your protectors together in that tiny prison island.