Bigote

It is pretty futile for Joseph Estrada to deny that anyone called him by the nickname “Bigote.”

I’m sure no one called him that in his face. I am also sure that when he was President, all his underlings referred to him by that fond nickname.

In the same manner, all of Fidel Ramos’ underlings referred to him as “Tabako” when he was President. I am sure no one called him that in his face. It was like a code-name that was not at all secret — like corporate executives are referred to, with great deference, by their initials.

Strangely, no one referred to Ramos as “Tabako” or Estrada as “Bigote” after they left the presidency. Ramos was henceforth referred to as “FVR” and Estrada was simply “Erap.”

There must be some sociological explanation for that. Perhaps people used these slightly derogatory nicknames to signal they were in the loop or were familiar with those who were.

Estrada’s denial was prompted by the mention of a certain “Bigote” in that controversial affidavit submitted by Cezar Mancao, who appears to know who might be responsible for the Dacer-Corbito double-murder incident. In all fairness, Mancao did not clearly state that this “Bigote” ordered the murders done. But he did suggest that the murders were done to possibly please him.

Rather than deny that anyone called him “Bigote”, a rather flimsy defense, Estrada should deny that he had a hand in the grisly crime. After all, in the Mancao affidavit, “Bigote” enters the picture only in the third person. He is name-dropped rather than directly implicated.

The equally controversial former police officer Reynaldo Berroya did volunteer the opinion that it was out of Estrada’s character to order a murder. Perhaps his name — or rather, his nickname — was invoked by underlings with a penchant for murdering people.

Berroya should know whereof he speaks. He was a close associate of Estrada. More than that, he was a drinking crony of the man who would be president — albeit for an abbreviated term.

Berroya also knows well a certain Panfilo Lacson, former police chief and now senator. He has had a rather public tiff with the senator who now feels he is being implicated in the twin murders. As an indication of that, he has put out political ads saying the accusations are politically motivated.

Those ads are a little strange. They seem to be an attempt to settle the serious accusations in the court of public opinion rather than in the court of law, where evidence is more rigorously appraised.

Berroya has nothing to gain by volunteering to clear Estrada of involvement in the gruesome crime. He is simply expressing his judgment based on a reading of character. By doing so, the former police intelligence official is also suggesting the crime was committed under the former president’s nose by people invoking his name to make a beastly act seem authoritative.

It is not too hard to agree with Berroya’s estimate of Estrada’s character. The former president is given to making nasty remarks that are often uncalled for. But that is part of a cultivated public persona rather than a measure of man’s real personality.

Those who have known Estrada up close quickly understand that there is a bit of a child-man in this character. He is always in search of fun, relishing the good time and rather easy to forgive anyone who might have aggrieved him.

His is not a hard soul. He is certainly not the type to order the murder of his friends.

Those responsible for the Dacer-Corbito murders have poisoned souls. They think little about terminating lives — or about ruining people. They are obsessed with the face of death.

Which, I might easily agree with Berroya’s assessment, is not the sort of person Estrada is.

But Estrada should improve on his defense in the light of the Mancao affidavit. He should go beyond that flimsy disclaimer that no one calls him “Bigote.”

Nor should he do a Lacson and dismiss the Mancao affidavit as nothing more than a political hatchet job. Two men were killed. Their remains were burned. Their bones ground to make identification difficult. The men who did this did not only have motive and means. They also had the leisure to attempt to destroy all evidence of the crime.

In fact, we were told by the lawyers of one of the possible defendants that no one may be convicted for this crime — simply because the bodies of the supposed murder victims could not be produced. That is a satanically bizarre thing to say.

Estrada may not be complicit in this crime. But he is such an undisciplined person it is easy to believe that he could never have disciplined his underlings.

His best defense is to say this. Then go on to tell us what he knows of those troubled days when Dacer and Corbito were abducted and killed. Surely he must have an inkling of who might have done the gruesome deed.

He has everything to lose by simply muttering that no one calls him “Bigote.” He has everything to gain by being forthright about whatever information he might be privy to. The murders happened during his watch and should not be left to endless speculation as it stands to be yet another unexplained political killing.