This seems to be the fate now of Ruben Marin, 35, alias JR, after he exposed alleged links between the police and suspected gambling lord Melchor Caliwag, alias Ngongo, who has reportedly taken over the lucrative jueteng operations in Angeles City and other parts of Central Luzon.
Chief Superintendent Reynaldo Berroya, Central Luzon police director, and Sen. Panfilo Lacson, both long-time adversaries, have been trying to track down Marin since he made his exposé.
The exposé prompted agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to raid Caliwag’s alleged jueteng dens in Pampanga, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija and Tarlac last Wednesday.
Caliwag, however, was not among the 50 people arrested during the raids.
"We are hunting him down, although he cannot be arrested since he is not facing any criminal charges," said Senior Superintendent Allen Bantolo, Berroya’s chief intelligence officer.
Credibility doubted Berroya has cast doubt on the credibility of Marin, who claimed to have helped Caliwag take control of jueteng operations in Angeles City in March last year, saying Marin has records of estafa.
Berroya said Marin’s exposé seemed to have been prompted by an estafa case he allegedly committed against Caliwag. He gave no details.
Lacson’s office has been calling up this reporter to seek help in locating Marin purportedly to ask him to testify in a hearing of the Senate committee on peace and order tomorrow.
Marin, however, has gone missing. Bantolo said he tried to serve summons to Marin last Thursday and Friday, but he was no longer at his residence in Barangay Pandan in Angeles.
A staffer from Lacson’s office also told The STAR that the senator’s men found Marin’s house abandoned last Thursday.
Marin had turned off his cellular phone since last Wednesday.
Earlier, he said he had been receiving death threats on his cellphone since his rift with Caliwag. He said Caliwag had wrongly suspected him of cheating on jueteng operations in Angeles City and that he was being eased out from such operations.
A mere ploy "Marin must have disappeared upon the prodding of his advisers," said Bantolo, amid talks that Marin’s exposé was a mere ploy to sabotage Caliwag’s hold on jueteng in Angeles to pave the way for the entry of another gambling lord.
"Otherwise, he would have cooperated with police investigators and would not have fled," he said.
Bantolo said one of the summons he tried to serve to Marin was upon the instructions of the Senate committee on peace and order which wanted him to testify in its hearing tomorrow.
Berroya said Sen. Robert Barbers, the committee’s chairman, has expressed interest in Marin’s exposé.
Bantolo said the Senate committee has also invited Caliwag to tomorrow’s hearing.
"I don’t know if the invitation to him has been served. He is quite rich," he said.
Bantolo denied allegations that Berroya was racing against Lacson in tracking down Marin. "We are just doing our job within the bounds of the law," he said.
Local observers suspect that Lacson apparently intends to use Marin’s exposé to build up a case against Berroya with whom he has been at odds since former President Joseph Estrada was still vice president.
In a recent privilege speech, Lacson accused Berroya, among other government officials, of raking in millions of pesos in bribes from jueteng lords.