On the Way to Bohol.
I’m going to Bohol for the first time in a while.
I am going to Bohol, but not to go home.
I’m heading to Bohol to meet Melchor.
Meeting Melchor is truly no ordinary matter.
What is that brat so scared of?
He refuses to leave Malacañang Palace.
He says he hates everywhere else.
He just keeps insisting I come to Malacañang Palace, no matter what.
Come to Malacañang Palace, he says, and he’ll guarantee my safety.
Heh heh heh.
Doesn’t “I’ll guarantee your safety” sound even more dangerous?
It sounds like he’s opening his maw wide and telling me to walk right in. How am I supposed to go?
So I told him the opposite—that I’d guarantee his safety, so he should come to Mindanao.
He nearly had a fit.
Said he absolutely couldn’t come.
Thanks to that, choosing a place wasn’t easy.
Of the options, Cebu was the strongest candidate.
It’s halfway between Mindanao and Manila, and it’s a major city in the Philippines, so there are plenty of hotels and it’s safe.
But at the last moment, Melchor changed the location.
He said we should do it in Bohol, right next to it.
I didn’t care either way.
Melchor probably didn’t know.
That my real turf isn’t Zamboanga, but Bohol.
.
.
.
The outskirts of Bohol, Philippines.
A solar power plant was being built there.
Right now, solar power plants were under construction at three sites across Mindanao and Bohol.
Once these alone were completed, they would be an enormous help in lowering electricity rates in the Mindanao and Bohol regions.
As long as you watch out for typhoons, the Philippines gets plenty of sunlight, making it an ideal place for solar power.
There’s also a lot of undeveloped empty land, and electricity rates are high, so the profitability is strong too.
Once the power plants are complete, that electricity will be supplied strictly only to regions where Akbayan’s candidates were elected.
And only to regions where they won with more than 70% of the vote.
It would be nice to supply every region where they were elected, but there were too many places where Akbayan candidates had won, so we had no choice but to start with the places that had the highest vote shares.
That means Mindanao and Bohol.
We’ll supply the areas with high vote shares first, then gradually expand.
Some said this wasn’t fair.
Some said you couldn’t operate a public good like this.
Some said we had to consider efficiency.
Some said priorities were necessary.
There was all that talk, but I didn’t care.
It didn’t matter.
I planned to operate it openly and blatantly in a biased manner.
Why would I give electricity to bastards who didn’t vote for us?
Even in Mindanao, there are regions where Akbayan wasn’t elected.
We won’t supply electricity to those regions.
More precisely, it’s been postponed.
We’ll do it someday.
Probably around the time Akbayan gets elected there?
I don’t do that thing where you give an extra rice cake to the child you dislike.
We don’t have enough rice cakes for ourselves.
I don’t know why I’d give that rice cake to someone I hate.
I don’t think that’s right, and so I won’t give it to them.
They must be people who don’t want electricity, which is why they didn’t vote for Akbayan, right?
There’s no reason to supply cheap electricity to people like that.
Giving something to someone who doesn’t even want it isn’t a benefit. It’s violence.
If I’m being honest, I’d like to supply electricity only to the people who voted for Akbayan, even within regions where Akbayan was elected.
Even the electricity going to people who didn’t vote for Akbayan feels like a waste.
Given the situation, supplying electricity to districts where an Akbayan candidate wasn’t even elected?
Not a chance.
Equality, cause, efficiency, justice, fairness, public good—no matter what words you attach to it, it’s not happening.
It’s up to me.
These are solar panels I scraped together by selling Ascend the hard way.
I made the electricity, and I’ll sell it to whoever I want. Who’s going to say otherwise?
If they do say something, all I need is one line.
The system isn’t in place yet, so it can’t be done.
The infrastructure hasn’t been established, so service is unavailable.
And if they keep pressing, I can just present either a gun or money.
******
After looking around the construction site, I headed to the appointed location.
The place I was supposed to meet Melchor was Tagbilaran City Hall.
He must have been scared out of his mind, because security was unbelievably tight.
It looked like not only the Presidential Security Command (PSC), but Bohol’s military unit had been mobilized too.
Soldiers surrounded Tagbilaran City Hall, our meeting place.
Not that it mattered. Bohol’s military would probably listen to me better anyway.
As I was about to enter the meeting place, the unit commander tried to salute me, so I shook my head and stopped him.
By the time I reached the conference room in Tagbilaran City Hall, the place where we were meeting, I had no idea how many times I’d been searched.
The entire path there was packed with agents and soldiers too.
When I entered the conference room where we were to talk, armed soldiers were guarding Melchor.
And after all that trouble, I finally met Melchor.
There was nothing particularly special about him.
He looked exactly the way he did on TV.
No, maybe a little more slight than that?
His build looked small, but his eyes alone looked fierce.
Melchor greeted me first.
“Welcome.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
We exchanged formal greetings and sat facing each other across a square table.
“I am Melchor, President of the Philippines.”
“I’m Simon, commander of the rebel army.”
“I’m…”
I was a little flustered.
This had never happened before.
I’d never introduced myself anywhere before.
But now that I actually tried to introduce the person called “me,” I wasn’t sure what I was.
I had no title.
Simon had come with the title of rebel commander, but what about me?
I did have a job as a guide for Candy Tour, but it was hard to sit at a negotiation table with the president under the name of a travel agency guide.
Representative of Vicente Palace, or Emerald Resort?
Could I sit here as the representative of Emerald Resort?
And besides, the representative of Emerald Resort was Sandro.
GoGo Casino was handled by O Eutteum and Chen Zhihao, and Trustbit was being run well by Anna.
The rebel base and the gold mine were handled by Simon, the construction company by Gang Jaeho, and Ascend by Edward.
The arms smuggling was handled by Dennis and Sin Junggi, and solar power by Magiting.
I was, at best, a busybody.
It wasn’t as if I could say my job was “totem.”
The only proper title I had was, in the end, guide at Candy Tour.
A neighborhood uncle who worked as a guide and butted in from the sidelines with advice? That was me.
It was hard to explain myself with any of those.
Was I disappointed by that?
Not at all.
If anything, it was better.
I’m an outsider.
I’m not from here.
I’m someone who can leave at any time.
And yet the reason I’ve stayed here this long is—
Because I was grateful to these people.
I was grateful that they always looked after me from beside me.
That they were always there for me whenever I needed them.
It was comfortable that they treated me without reserve, so I simply stayed here.
That was why I thought it was fortunate.
Because things seemed to run fine without me.
I liked that it seemed like it wouldn’t matter even if I weren’t here.
The fact that I didn’t have a suitable title to introduce myself with here did fluster me a little, but it didn’t matter.
A title doesn’t stand in for me.
So I decided to answer honestly.
That I was simply a citizen of Zamboanga.
I was going to say I had come as a citizens’ representative.
“I’m…”
“This is the person I serve. He is, in practical terms, the supreme leader who commands the rebel army, our spiritual pillar, and the highest decision-maker. Mindanao does not function without him.”
There seemed to be something wrong with Simon’s tongue.
He was naturally spouting bullshit.
“I’ve heard as well. That there’s a big shot in Mindanao. I suppose that must be him.”
No, what kind of ridiculous rumors are going around?
A big shot?
First, I should just introduce myself.
“I’m Alex.”
“It is an honor to meet you.”
President Melchor gave a slight greeting.
“Then, before we begin our conversation, how about clearing out those screens standing back there?”
I spoke as politely as possible.
“Why? Are you scared?”
Melchor spoke sarcastically.
This bastard?
I’m saying it so you won’t be embarrassed.
He doesn’t even realize I’m being considerate.
“No? That’s not it… I’m just not sure whether it’s all right for those people to hear our conversation. We don’t mind. I said it out of consideration for you, Mr. President. If it’s all right for those people to know everything you’ve done, then I don’t care if they stay. If they’re going to stay anyway, it must be uncomfortable standing there. Wouldn’t it be better to at least bring them chairs?”
At my words, Melchor seemed flustered.
Did he not think I’d hit back?
What are you going to do if you’re already flustered? We haven’t even started yet.
“Mmm. You men wait outside.”
“Yes.”
Once the presidential security team left, only the three of us remained in the conference room.
Melchor spoke first.
“I received the gift you sent. Quite an unwelcome gift it was.”
Once the security team was gone, Melchor’s tone and attitude changed as well.
Was it because there was no one watching?
Then I was comfortable too.
“I’m glad you received it. I was worried it might not reach you.”
“You did something useless. Even without going that far, I already have more than enough reason to kill you.”
“Killing people must be your hobby. You killed soldiers, killed rebels, killed your own citizens, and now you’re trying to kill us too. I respect your hobbies, Mr. President, but I have no desire to join in. And even less desire to let it happen to me.”
“Haha. Do things in this world go the way you want? The way of the world is that you suffer it even when you know.”
“Is that so? I’m poorly educated, so I don’t know much about those things. Advice like that is always welcome. Then are you done with the threats?”
“What?”
“If you’re done threatening us, let’s talk business.”
“What did you say?”
Melchor’s voice rose slightly, as if he was angry.
“We didn’t come here to die. We came here to talk. And we need to receive some compensation too.”
“Compensation?”
“Because you sent the army, our losses were enormous. If you attacked people who were living peacefully without so much as a word, you should compensate them.”
In truth, there were no losses.
None at all.
If anything, we gained far more.
Still, at times like this, shouldn’t you exaggerate a little?
It’s ridiculous to demand compensation when you haven’t lost a single thing.
You have to whine that it hurts if you want them to give you something.
These guys can’t even tally their own damage anyway, so would they pay attention to ours?
“Hahahaha. The world has gotten so much better. Rebel bastards who should be seized and beheaded on the spot are making demands with such confidence? Surely you don’t actually think this will work?”
“Huh? I thought it would work plenty well. I guess you have no awareness of your own actions?”
“No, I am fully aware. I know very well what I can do too. That is precisely why I can do it, you see.”
“Oh~ That’s right. You can do it. But if you take action, you should take responsibility for it. Don’t you think?”
“Responsibility? I merely fulfilled my duty as president. What responsibility?”
“Wow~ look at how shameless this bastard is. You tried to wipe out innocent civilians with bombs, and you say you fulfilled your duty. Is that a president’s duty? Killing innocent citizens? Do you have to be this shameless to become president? I could never be president.”
Melchor, who had been calmly pretending he was guiltless, reacted sensitively to the word “bastard.”
So he couldn’t tolerate being insulted?
“Bastard? I would like you to be careful with your choice of words. A single word like that can invite death.”
“Hahahaha. See? This bastard’s hobby is definitely killing people.”
Melchor glared at me.
“I took precious time to come here, but if you’re only going to spout this nonsense, I’ll return. I’ll send your gift back your way. Something stronger this time.”
“Why, getting cold feet? Want to run away?”
“I have no desire to play along with your cheap provocations.”
Melchor tried to stand.
“Wait. We haven’t even gotten to the main point yet, so what’s the hurry? Is Tala waiting for you?”
When I said the name of Melchor’s mistress, Melchor was shaken.
“You thought we wouldn’t know? We know everything. You think all I know about is your mistress? The casino and the farm are things we shared, so let’s skip those. Should we talk about the bribes and the budget you skimmed? Or should we talk about the paper companies? If not that, should we talk about PPP?”
“You know about PPP too?”
At the mention of PPP, Melchor was startled.
It seemed he really thought we wouldn’t know about that.
PPP. Public-Private Partnership.
It refers to the government and the private sector forming a partnership together to enter infrastructure or public service fields.
To put it simply, it’s a form of privatization.
The solar power business I’m doing could also be called PPP.
Of course, ours was a strange PPP where supply, not profit, came first.
Melchor had set up a paper company and obtained the operating and management rights to various public facilities.
The income was quite nice, too.
“You know. Manila Airport? Or the Skyway elevated road? The Luzon Expressway? The LRT?”
Melchor’s expression changed when he confirmed that we knew the details accurately.
Fluster and surprise coexisted on his face.
As expected, the most frightening enemy is the enemy within.
The truth was, I hadn’t known at all, but Laksa told me.
Laksa was truly meticulous.
He even had the evidence neatly prepared.
Recruiting Laksa had been far too easy.
I want to get rid of Melchor.
When I told him that if we got rid of Melchor, all of Melchor’s assets he had been managing would be given to him, Laksa began cooperating with tremendous enthusiasm.
He brought boxes full of Melchor’s secret affairs, things I wasn’t even curious about.
That was how I found out.
What Melchor made money from, who he met, what kinds of dirty deeds he committed.
Even if I didn’t ask, Laksa brought it all.
Laksa had a lot of grudges against Melchor, too.
“T-that’s…”
“Enough. You don’t need to make excuses. We’re all players here; let’s not be pathetic.”
“That’s not it…”
“I said enough. I understand. So there’s only one thing I want to say.”
“What is it?”
“Retire.”
“What?”
“I’m telling you to retire. You’ve earned as much money as you need, and you’ve taken care of this and that well enough, so you can retire now, can’t you? Stepping down and living as a private citizen doesn’t sound too bad.”
At the word retire, Melchor seemed to become very angry.
Did that mean he absolutely couldn’t give it up?
“That’s going a bit too far.”
“If it’s hard for you to decide on your own, should we help you a little and force you into retirement?”
“What nonsense.”
“My plan is this. Starting today, we’ll spread scandal articles about you everywhere. The media will be filled with articles about you. Your corruption, of course, and even various details of your private life. Unable to withstand the pressure, you’ll end your own life. What do you think? Pretty good, isn’t it?”
“You’re insane…”
“Why, you don’t like it? I put quite a bit of thought into that scenario.”
“How unpleasant. I don’t think there’s any need for further conversation.”
Melchor rose from his seat.
“Sit down.”
I said.
But Melchor didn’t listen and headed straight for the door.
As if there was nothing more for him to see here, he left without a trace of hesitation, not even looking back.
Melchor opened the conference room door to go outside, and he had no choice but to be flustered.
The security team he had expected to be waiting there was all bound and kneeling.
And beside them, Bohol’s army was guarding them.
Bohol’s army had subdued the security team and was keeping watch over them.
No matter how excellent the security team was, they couldn’t beat sheer numbers.
The security team that had followed him here numbered around thirty, while more than five hundred Bohol soldiers had been mobilized today, so it was only natural they had been subdued.
When I stepped outside the door, the Bohol soldiers saluted me.
This time, I returned it lightly as well.
Then I looked at Melchor and spoke.
“Ah—I forgot to mention that. If you open this door, you die.”
“What?”
Melchor was visibly shaken.
He had already opened the door.
It seemed he had realized that there was no one here to protect him.
His body was trembling.
“That’s why I told you to sit down. Why do you ignore people when they talk? It’s because you don’t listen to others that these unfortunate things happen.”
I received a gun from one of the Bohol soldiers.
“Farewell, and in your next life, please live kindly. Don’t live like filth and end up meeting someone like me.”
“Ugh…”
“Then let’s leave it at that. We’ll take care of the rest.”
“How can you do this? Absolutely not. No. It can’t be like this.”
“Haha. Do things in this world ever go the way you want? That’s life—getting hit even when you know it’s coming.”