The case of master swindler Edward Diokno Eje a. k. a. hari ng baclaran (who foisted the “Malacañang appointment scam” on about a dozen or so people) didn’t quite explode in traditional news media and social media scenes.
This was, perhaps, because of the massive “news management” effort orchestrated to contain the situation and keep Vice President Inday Sara Duterte Carpio’s name out of it — or at least the part of her name that she drops depending on the state of her marital relations.
After all, Edward Diokno Eje’s brother is said to be one of Inday Sara’s army of staff members and he is also a kumpare sa inaanak of Inday Sara’s husband lawyer Mans or Mons Carpio.
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Diokno Eje reportedly swindled about one billion pesos from people seeking appointments to various positions, bid awards for government projects, and a gaming franchise from the PCSO.
They all fell for his lies of being able to secure such things for a hefty fee, which they all paid happily until they discovered it was all a scam.
One of the biggest losers, if not THE biggest loser, is a businesswoman from the Visayas who got scammed out of P300 million by Diokno Eje. Allegedly, the so-called Hari ng Baclaran convinced the businesswoman that for P300 million, he could get her a gaming franchise from the PCSO that would be worth billions of pesos. The short of it is that Diokno Eje gave her fake PCSO documents supposedly granting the franchise and when the scam was discovered, the slimey gutterball began threatening the businesswoman.
Afraid for her life and having seen Diokno Eje brandish so many pictures of his connection with Mans Carpio as well as Paolo Duterte (the brother of Inday Sara), she messaged the then Davao City Mayor on her Instagram account asking for her protection and help in recovering her money from Diokno Eje.
The message was just “seen” and later, though it is not clear how, the businesswoman received a message from Atty. Mans asking that they (Inday Sara and himself) be kept out of the mess surrounding the purported PCSO franchise scam foisted on her.
But here’s the clincher: The businesswoman said that she wouldn’t have fallen for the scam had she not gotten assurances from Mans and others that Diokno Eje was a “legit operator” or in other words an honest “fixer”.
In other words, Inday Sara’s silence practically condoned the scam her husband knew about and probably signed off on in some way.
Years after the perpetration of the scam, the businesswoman had to sell off her properties and close down almost all her businesses just to get by. She has practically been reduced to living hand to mouth and staving off demands from her creditors.
And as for Diokno Eje… No one knows if he is still detained at the CIDG or if he has already been silenced forever — a loose end, eliminated.
P.S.
It seems rather odd that the DepEd issued a statement welcoming the arrest of Diokno Eje (did this have anything to do with the P50 million fumigation contract awarded to the King of Baclaran?). Likewise, Paolo Duterte also issued a disavowal of knowing Diokno Eje.
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It’s surprising that Mr. Ramon Ortoll isn’t reacting to these explosive claims having written quite a number of pro-Sara Duterte articles here in GRP.