Investigating a murder and finding his roots

Joe Robles is a California cop. Having migrated at age 9 from Cebu to San Francisco, he grew up in American schools, with American friends, on American food. He thinks, talks, acts American. Police duties require Joe to get involved. But after hours, he prefers to keep to himself, watching American sports on television while sipping American beer.

A vacation ten years ago, when Joe was 39, changed all this. Since then, he has been thinking a lot about the Philippines, dealing more with Filipino community affairs in the new land, but aching to do big things for the home country.

It was a break to find rest from gruelling police work. Instead, Joe found himself, and a cause. He took a long furlough to see Spain. Touring the port city of Malaga, he felt the warm Mediterranean weather much like the Cebu of decades past. More than that, he found it teeming with Filipino overseas workers.

When the Filipinos learned he was a police officer, they pressed him to do what he could for one of them. It was on local radio weeks earlier. Elena Sabado, a housemaid in a mansion of a rich man, had been raped and killed by unknown thugs. Investigation was spotty. The story died down and Spanish authorities closed the case with no suspect indicted.

Joe inquired with the local police. Working on informal brotherhood ties that bind lawmen, he slowly got them to open up. In hushed tones they recounted that Elena’s employer was a noted tycoon in Andalucia whom they suspected of dealing in narcotics. It appeared from initial sleuthing that the maid inadvertently had stumbled into her boss’ drug deals, and needed to be silenced. For good measure, she was raped, then stabbed 14 times, to serve as a warning to nosy people. They had picked up her boyfriend, suspecting he was about to flee Spain as shown by a plane ticket to Manila. But they let him go after days of interrogation, finding out that workers from Asia were required to have proof of intention to fly back home when the contract ends. Elena, the suitor had said, was from a place north of Manila, but they couldn’t remember where.

That tip was as far as the fellow-cops could help Joe. They had been told by higher-ups to shut up. They felt it futile to pursue the investigation since the judges were friends of the big man. In contrast, Filipino contacts narrated to Joe, two Spanish sisters were also raped and murdered about the same time. The local press and national television kept breathing down the necks of the authorities, and the culprits were arrested within days.

Cutting short his tour, Joe took a bus to Madrid ten hours away. At the Philippine embassy, no one had heard about Elena Sabado or her fate. Introducing himself to them, Joe pleaded that they petition Spain for justice. They curtly reminded him that he was an American meddling in Filipino matters. More than that, by provoking an angry reaction from the authorities, he could mess up the prospects of thousands of other Filipinos who wish to land jobs in Europe.

Back in San Francisco, Joe befriended the staff at the RP consulate to find out what they could. They tried everything, but turned up nothing. Joe vented his frustration by doing something he had never done before: he wrote a song about Elena as a reminder to himself what many Filipinos were going through to keep families from sinking in poverty.

Joe returned to the police beat, but his bosses noticed a change in him. While on patrol with White buddies, he would stop by Filipino shops for long chats. He also started reading more Filipino community papers and news from Manila as well from the Internet. He began to talk, think, act Filipino, enjoy Filipino foods and watch Filipino shows.

San Francisco was then having a surge of crimes by Asian teenage gangs, and a well-publicized drive-by shooting was attributed to Filipino juvenile delinquents. The SFPD called Joe in for a special assignment: to do community work as part of the crime-prevention program. He was the perfect man for it: he knew the Bay Area’s ins and outs, its bright spots and dark alleys. Most of all, he was very Filipino.

Soon Joe was organizing basketball teams and glee clubs for Filipino youths. He weaned them away from drugs through sports and culture. The juvenile crime rate dropped. Joe rose in Filipino circles as a local hero. Two years ago he was invited to be among the delegates in Silicon Valley of a Global Filipino Networking Convention. Early this month he joined hundreds of Filipino businessmen, elective officials, civic and overseas workers’ leaders to the second convention in Manila.

Before flying home, Joe pulled out of his desk the song about Elena. He felt it his unfinished business to find out more about her. He asked stage actor Bernardo Bernardo, now a club owner in Daly City, to translate it to Filipino, then hired a local group to record it on CD. With the song played on Manila radio, Joe hopes to link up with Elena’s kin.

Here is his dirge:

Labing-apat na saksak / Ang sa dibdib ay tinanggap / Ni Elena Sabado, isang alila / Na sa Espanya ay nangarap;

Pagluha niya at pagdaing / Di pansin ng gumahasa / Masarap, buhay sa Espanya / Kung hindi ka Pilipina;

Elena Sabado / Ito ba ang araw mo? / Ikaw na numero’t pangalan lamang / Sa mercado ng utusan;

May ilang nakaalam / Sa marahas mong pagpanaw / Ni walang makapiyok / Wari’y ilag bawat galaw;

Di napansin ng gobyerno / Walang alam ang consulado / Walang paki ang Malagenyo / Problema mo, problema mo;

Turing sa ‘yo Bagong Bayani / Ng iyong bayan at kalahi / Nguni’t ngayong ika’y inapi / Bakit sila pipi’t bingi?

Naglakas-loob mangarap / Pamilya mo’y sadyang mahal / Nguni’t patay kang uuwi / Sa kahon ng Balikbayan;

Ilan pa ang tulad mo / Sa daan-libong mahihirap / Ilan kaya ang nakarinig ... / Labong-apat na saksak.

(SFPD Officer Joe Robles can be reached at +1-415-6946475.)

* * *

Catch Sapol ni Jarius Bondoc, Saturdays at 8 a.m., on DWIZ (882-AM).

* * *

E-mail: [email protected]