Trouble
Whenever I feel Thailand is a crazy place it helps to read about the Philippines. I looked up the Angeles City ex-pat website harrythehorse.com, which lists one murder, violent attack, scam and blackmail after the other. But don’t worry, says the site, Angeles City is safe.
One popular scam in Angeles City (the pinoy version of Pattaya) is the underage setup.
Here is such a story:
Dear Sir,
I would like to report the following incident to you:
Walking Field Rd. on 15th Sept. 07 at about 3 am I was approached by a ladyboy (Monica - there in the street every night-knew her from the days before asking whether her girl-friend (room-mate) could take a shower at my room at the near-by hotel. The girl-friend appeared to be between 17-19 (I asked for her age she said 19). Both came to my hotel. While the “room-mate” girl was taking her shower (in fact she did not as I found out later, she just undressed - called her police-friends and came back with a towel around her waist). In the meantime Monica had disappeared.
The same moment the girl came out of the shower the police-friends who had obviously been waiting outside for her call from the bathroom, rushed into my room with 5 of them, saying that I had seduced a minor. I told them that I never even as much as touched the girl and this is a clear set-up. They then took a pocket knife and my medicine from the table and put it in their pocket as evidence (never got it back).
They told me to take my passport and my credit-card and go with them to the police-station. The parked outside the police-station near Field Rd.,then the police-bus-driver (the obvious head of the gang) called to what he said was his chief in the office. He told me I can avoid being put in prision against US$ 500. If not, I would be put into prision until I can prove that the girl is not a minor, which means I would need a lawyer etc. The girl then said she lied, she would be 17 only not 19 (which could be true). They then drove off to an Visa ATM they clearly knew, went inside the box with me, made me insert the card and the pin and then pushed me aside to enter Peso 30.000 (we know that is what you get). The ATM did not give it to them, they tried with 25.000 and suceeded. They took the money, told me to leave Angeles City immediately, not to talk to anyone and drove off, leaving me in the street. They called their chief several times during the process. They also told me that Peso 25.000 divided by 5 of them and the chief is nothing to talk about and I should be happy to get away that slightly.
I left the Philipines immediately and will of course never return. I know Philipine people as extremely friendly and helpful - a pleasure to be with them - So why do you choose criminals, blackmailers and rogues for the police-force ? I dont expect the money back of course, but perhaps there is one honest person who will realize the damage such criminals in uniform do to tourism to this city. The only prove it the ATM slip from Angeles for 25.000, that I was left with - and the exit-stamp from the Philipines the next day. Yours faithfully, L. V.
—
And then the “remember me?” scam:
He was wandering around by himself, slightly drunk, down by Blue Nile at around 11:00 am in the morning when a guy standing outside the Chic’n'ribs calls out to him: “Hey friend, remember me? I saw you last night at your hotel.” CherryBoy told me the guy looked clean, well-dressed and spoke very good English…then was quickly telling him about a “bar” he had with “Korean & Vietmanese” girls…and that it was “just around the corner”. He even showed him some kind of ID or drivers license from California, and stated he had a son in the U.S. Air Force also in Arizona. So, CherryBoy then got into a conveniently awaiting trike with him and sped off to go see this “bar”….”just around the corner”.
A long trike ride later, which included crossing a bridge or two, and he was in some all-Filipino neighborhood. He had no idea where he was….but he knew it was far away from Feilds. Then, they go inside some decent looking house…and there’s other older, well-dressed Filipino guys in there. They sit him down on a couch and serve him a coke in can. Then they start asking him if he likes to watch cock-fights…and as he’s drinking his coke…they break out a deck of playing cards and ask if he wants to play a game “just for fun”. Not long after, he starts feeling very strange and woozy. That’s when he said he knew something wasn’t right. He said the room started spinning and he felt like he was “tripping”, as if on Ecstasy. So he jumps up, and without bothering to put his shoes back on, darts out of the house, running down the street barefoot screaming, “Help me, help me!” as they chased behind him. Said he ran a good 2 blocks at least and came upon a trike, jumped into the sidecar and yelled for the driver to go fast….but the trike-driver said no and shooed him away. So they surrounded him, about 3 guys, and shook him down right there in the street for all the money he had on him, about 5,000 pesos……only.
Then he just walked for awhile until asking someone for help…and managed to hitch a ride back to Fields. He said he felt the effects of whatever drug he was on the rest of that day until the evening.
—
Regarding the underage scam I don’t know if they do this with boys (as opposed to with girls only) in the Philippines, but I have heard about it in Cambodia. Some too young boy appears out of nowhere as a friend of your friend, goes to use the bathroom and surprise! here comes the police.
The card playing scam is known in Bangkok too, even if I have not heard about it for a while.
Source for the stories: Harry The Horse >>
August 12th, 2008 at 10:06 am
The underage scam is used everywhere in Asia. It is expertly practiced in Malaysia and the Philippines. With almost every story you read about someone being scammed or robbed, it usually starts off “I had only had a couple of drinks and was heading back to my hotel when the bar closed….”
August 12th, 2008 at 10:27 am
How is it played in Malaysia? Same setup as in the Philippines? “My friend need to use the bathroom?”
August 12th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
These stories put the spot light on the victims more than they do the tricksters. The inability to resist temptation leads people into this kind of nightmare situation. The tricksters are exploiting a weakness, they are just taking the opportunity to milk a goat.
August 12th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Yes, the Malaysian scam gets doubly nasty because it is a Muslim country. Sodomy is outlawed. So if a young man is involved…well, you get the picture.
August 12th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Prior to the early 1980s the Philippines was a paradise for gay sex with any age partner. Whole cities were supported for decades, maybe even a century according to the old timer expats who called the place home, and the easy going gay activity that absolutely no one objected to. And during the Marcos period things were very safe in the country as well. This is the positive side of Marcos that no one ever mentions to you.
With the advent of the NGOs, and the Western feminist’s attitudes toward sex, the easy going sex scene in the Philippines vanished. Even as Marcos began to lose his grip on things in the months leading up to his flight from the country, things began to get much worse. Since his departure, things have only become a veritable disaster for the country on all counts and hence NPR (USA public radio) had this recent comment:
“But there’s little evidence that people’s lives have improved. In Asia, the Philippine economy used to be second only to Japan’s in productivity. Now it’s near the bottom.”
Starting in the early 1980s off duty Immigration officials would bring young boys with them as they went to knock on a tourists hotel room door stating they wanted to check their passport. As soon as the door opened they pushed the young boys inside where they pulled their clothes off. The officials would then say they found the boys in the room. The charge to get a passport back those days was US$3000 and the hapless foreigner would have to collect the money and actually go the next day to the Immigration Department to recover his passport and make the pay off. Once payment was made the passport was returned and if no money was forthcoming the tourist’s picture would be published in the newspapers claiming him to be a dangerous escaped rapist. Sometimes they used young girls too, it mattered little what sex was involved. In one case I knew of a gay guy was accused of having sex with a 12 year old girl.
And yes, it has only become worse.
And yet the NGOs and even many gays now claim that things have been “cleaned up” and now are better. Well… they are better for the con artists and corrupt officials. They are hardly better for gays! But I have little sympathy for the gays in general since they misguidedly believed that their lot would improve if they could somehow distance themselves from the “evil ones” who liked boys in their teens for the most part. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Even in places such as Canada, plain vanilla gays can have their computers seized for completely legal things and even written stories and find themselves harassed in general. Read all about that here:
http://www.xtra.ca/public/viewstory.aspx?AFF_TYPE=1&STORY_ID=5243&PUB_TEMPLATE_ID=9
In reality we have not been very liberated. Even Thailand was much better only 15 years ago not to mention 20 or 25 years ago! I suspect all places will become worse as time goes on.
August 14th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Anyone who picks up two ladyboys at 3am in a foreign country needs their head examining - to see if there are any brains in there.