Assassinated Citizens February, 2026

Assassination is normal in the Philippines not only for government officials but also for regular citizens. The most common method of assassination for both citizens and officials is a motorcycle duo riding up on the target and then blasting them away. This series will document the number of citizens assassinated on a monthly basis. These stories are to be distinguished from regular murder cases which happen on a daily basis. 

https://mb.com.ph/2026/02/05/gunmen-fatally-shoot-septuagenarian-in-negros

A 74-year-old woman was shot dead by unidentified armed men in Purok Halimbawa, Barangay Tapi, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental on Tuesday, Feb. 3.

Police identified the victim as Leonor, the owner of a house where seven New People’s Army (NPA) rebels reportedly stayed and killed in series of encounters with soldiers in April 2025.

Investigation said three armed men approached the victim’s husband and inquired about his wife’s whereabouts. He accompanied the suspects to the house of the victim’s sister.

The suspects told him to go inside and introduced themselves as NPA while the victim was instructed to go to the balcony.

A gunshot followed and the victim was found lying on the ground with a bullet wound in the head.

Recovered from the crime scene was a fired 9mm bullet.

The Army 15th Infantry Battalion condemned the killing and condoled with the victim’s family.

They called on the public to remain calm, refrain from speculation, and support authorities by providing any information that may help in the ongoing investigation.

Police are conducting follow-up investigation.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2182232/electric-coop-director-shot-dead-in-oriental-mindoro

A ranking official of the Oriental Mindoro Electric Cooperative (ORMECO) was shot dead Friday night in Pinamalayan town, police said.

In an exchange of emails on Saturday morning, PLt. Col. Joel Paningbatan, chief of the Pinamalayan Police Station, identified the victim as Tony Mendeja, 64, a member of ORMECO’s board of directors representing the municipalities of Bongabong and Bansud.

Paningbatan said Mendeja had pulled over his Isuzu D-Max vehicle along a roadside in Barangay Del Razon at around 8:30 p.m. to check the vehicle’s lights.

Minutes later, a lone gunman riding a motorcycle arrived and shot the victim.

The suspect, described as wearing a white T-shirt and riding a black motorcycle, fled after the shooting.

Mendeja was rushed to a community hospital but later succumbed to a gunshot wound that struck his side, police said.

“The gun that was used is still of an unknown caliber, and we are still waiting for the SOCO (Scene of the Crime Operatives) report,” said Paningbatan.  

Authorities said the victim had just come from Calapan City, where he attended a memorandum of agreement signing for a solar lights project, before the attack. 

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/regions/976576/ex-miss-philippines-earth-runner-up-gunned-down-in-isabela/story/

A 32-year-old public school teacher and former national beauty pageant finalist was gunned down early Friday evening, Feb. 13, while seated inside her vehicle outside her residence in San Manuel, Isabela, authorities said.

Police identified the victim as Lullete Jane Ramilo-De Guzman, who was inside a sport utility vehicle with her three children when the attack occurred at about 6:45 p.m. in Barangay Cabaritan.

Investigators said the victim’s father had just stepped out to open their gate when an unidentified assailant, riding a motorcycle without a license plate, entered the area and fired multiple shots at close range.

The gunman then sped away toward the eastern section of the town along the national highway, police said.

Ramilo-De Guzman sustained gunshot wounds to the face and torso. She was taken to Manuel Roxas District Hospital, where doctors declared her dead on arrival.

Her children were not injured but were reported to be in shock after witnessing the incident.

The victim had represented her hometown in pageantry and placed as a runner-up in the 2013 edition of Miss Philippines-Earth, where she also received several special awards.

She later pursued a career in education after completing a degree at University of Perpetual Help System-Isabela campus.

Police said they are examining several angles, including personal and professional motives, but no suspect has been identified so far.

Police Major Rogelio Natividad, chief of police, said they were still gathering evidence and conducting follow-up investigation, and that authorities had yet to establish a clear motive.

Authorities are awaiting forensic findings to determine the type of firearm used and have appealed to residents to share any information that may help identify the attacker.

The victim’s husband, Clifford Dela Cruz, had to rush back to Isabela from Manila after learning of the shooting.

In a Facebook post, Dela Cruz condemned what he described as a senseless act driven by ill will and expressed anguish over seeing their children grieve.

He expressed grief and disbelief over her killing, recounting their final conversation about half an hour before she was shot, making plans to spend time together once he returned home.

Dela Cruz said he was shocked when he received a call from his mother 

https://mb.com.ph/2026/02/13/man-shot-dead-in-front-of-mall

An 18-year-old man was shot dead and his companion was wounded in front of a shopping mall in Barangay 9 here on Thursday night, Feb. 12.

Police Col. Eugene Rebadomia, officer-in-charge of the Bacolod City Police Office, identified the victim as Christian, a resident of Barangay 6, this city. 

Rebadomia said the incident was first reported as a traffic accident. However, further verification revealed that it was a shooting.

Initial investigation showed that the victims – Christian, the back rider, and Nognog, the driver – stopped in a traffic light when a man appeared and shot them in the head.

Bystanders initially believed the incident was an accident.

The victims were taken to a hospital where Christian was declared dead and Nognog recovering.

Authorities recovered two .38 caliber revolvers from the victims. Four spent shells from a .45 caliber firearm were found at the crime scene.

“We are taking this incident seriously. We will not tolerate this kind of violence in the city,” said Rebadomia.

Police are conducting backtracking operations and profiling the victims who are allegedly involved in robbery-holdup incidents here.

“There is a possibility that they are linked to holdup incidents, including the so-called ‘tuktuk kalawit’ modus, where suspects flag down tricycles and threaten drivers at gunpoint to steal their mobile phones,” Rebadomia said.

Authorities are also looking into their possible connections to illegal drugs. Investigators are examining the victims’ motorcycle to find out if it was stolen or legally owned.

Police have identified persons of interest. 

https://mb.com.ph/2026/02/17/maguindanao-del-sur-mayors-nephew-killed-in-ambush

A daylight ambush along a national highway in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town on Tuesday left one dead and two injured, including the brother of Shariff Aguak Mayor Akmad Ampatuan Sr., police reported.

Police Capt. Steffi Salanguit, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said the victims were on board a black Nissan Livina traveling from Cotabato City to Shariff Aguak when a white mini-van without a license plate tailed them and opened fire with assault rifles at about 11 a.m.

Despite his injuries, the driver, Datu Morsid Ampatuan – the mayor's nephew – managed to reach an Army checkpoint in Datu Unsay but later passed away in a hospital.

Injured were Yasser Ampatuan, 49, the mayor's brother, and Lemon Bangen, 36, a resident of Datu Hofer Ampatuan. They are receiving treatment at the Bangsamoro Regional Medical Center.

Mayor Ampatuan Sr. survived a separate rocket-propelled grenade ambush in Shariff Aguak on Jan. 25.

Salanguit said the motive remains unknown and an investigation is ongoing.

https://mb.com.ph/2026/02/19/puerto-princesa-airport-manager-shot-dead-on-ash-wednesday

An official of the Puerto Princesa International Airport in Palawan was gunned down on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 18.

The victim was identified as acting manager Joanna Jonson-Infante.

Investigation said the victim was walking on Bayview Road in Barangay San Pedro, Puerto Princesa City at about 5:30 p.m. when a man appeared from behind and shot her.

The gunman fled and the victim was taken to a hospital where she was declared dead.

Police have formed a Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) to further investigate the incident and fast-track the arrest of the suspect.

Lawmen urged people with information about the incident to get in touch with the Puerto Princesa Police Station 1 at 09985985903 or the Puerto Princesa City Police Office at 09778557732. 

“Your timely cooperation is vital to the successful resolution of this case, the upholding of the rule of law, and the preservation of peace and order in our community,” the Puerto Princesa City Police Office said.

The Civil Aeronautics Administration of the Philippines condemned the murder of Infante.

Officials called on authorities to conduct a thorough and swift probe to hold those behind the crime accountable.

CAAP, led by retired Lt. Gen. Raul del Rosario, vowed close coordination with local law enforcement agencies and full cooperation in the ongoing investigation. 

A Probe Into Jeffery Epstein's Philippine Connections Sought By The House

Jeffery Epsteins has ties to the Philippines. That is a fact revealed by the release of the Epstein files. Not only did he employ Filipinos as house help but a firm owned by his best friend's brother-in-law used Filipino hackers to whitewash his name on the internet. Now the Progressive Makabayan bloc has filed a resolution to probe these connections.  Let's take a look.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/976174/house-probe-into-jeffrey-epstein-operations-connections-in-ph-sought/story/

A proposed resolution seeking an investigation into the alleged Philippine-based operations and connection of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has been filed at the House of Representatives.

Progressive Makabayan bloc filed proposed House Resolution No.762, directing the House committees on public information and women and gender equality to hold a legislative inquiry on reports that Epstein hired a Philippine-based team to wipe out alleged criminal activity from the web.

"There is a need to investigate this to determine the extent of Epstein’s network within the Philippines, to identify any local individuals or entities that may have aided or benefited from his operations, and to assess vulnerabilities that allowed the Philippines to be used as an operational hub for the clean-up of the name of an international sex offender," the resolution read.

"The possible intersection between a known international sexual exploitation offender and Philippine-based firm, regardless of whether such services were directly involved in abuse, necessitates careful legislative and policy scrutiny by the House of Representatives to ensure that no regulatory or enforcement gaps expose Filipino women and children to exploitation, grooming, coercion, or trafficking," it added.

Under the resolution, Gabriela Rep. Sarah Jane Elago, Kabataan Rep. Renee Louise Co, and ACT Teachers Rep Antonio Tinio wanted to uncover the full nature, scope, and duration of Epstein’s activities and networks within the Philippines.

They also wanted to identify Filipino agencies or service providers employed or engaged by Epstein or his associates.

They said the House panels should also investigate allegations of media manipulation and reputation management conducted from the Philippines aimed at shielding Epstein from accountability; and recommend legislative measures to tighten regulations, enhance oversight, and impose stricter penalties to prevent the Philippines from being used as a base for international crimes of sexual exploitation, human trafficking, and financial crimes.

Based on the documents from the US Department of Justice, Al Seckel allegedly helped Epstein outsource a firm in the Philippines to conceal the disgraced financier's alleged crimes on the internet by covering up negative links and promoting positive ones. 

Al Seckel, who is married to Ghislaine Maxwell’s sister. Maxwell is Epstein’s girlfriend and procurer.

“Google suggests has gotten rid of two negatives … jeffry epstein jail and one jeffrey epstein pedophile … another thing I’ve had the Philippine work on since day one,” Seckel told Epstein in an email dated December 7, 2010.

“Our group in the Philippines is building links and links to our sites, pseudo sites, and the other Jeffrey Epsteins of the world," Seckel’s email in October 2010 stated.

The cover-up was done by creating many links to the websites and pages they created about Epstein, emphasizing his supposed involvement in areas like science and sports.

“Wikipedia was an important victory, as it will always be at the top of the search engine results. Now the head lines do not mention convicted sex offender or pedophile. Instead, Philanthrophic work, Epstein Foundation, Promotion of Scientists,” Seckel said in an email dated December 16, 2010.

Epstein was arrested in 2019 for trafficking and abusing underage girls in the US and abroad. He died in jail later that year while waiting for trial.

This is very interesting but it should be noted a resolution filed means nothing unless it is acted upon. This could very well be performative. Let's not forget NO ONE in the House or Senate, except Trillanes,  insisted the Marawi siege be investigated despite all the evidence that not only was it botched but the government had prior knowledge that it would occur. And he filed that resolution just before his term ended. It was never acted upon. 

How exactly will this inquiry proceed? Al Seckel is dead. Are his firms still around? Where are the people who hacked Wikipedia at his behest?

But more than that....go beyond Epstein!! Who else is using Filipino hackers to manipulate the internet and the public's perception?? Many Filipino politicians, of course. 

It would also do well to ask what DIRECT ties Epstein had to the Philippines. The firm who cleaned up his internet ranking was an INDIRECT tie. Which Filipino politicians or personalities ever visited Little St. James Island or had dealings with Epstein? It cannot be forgotten that the Philippines is deeply involved in global politics even sending a delegation to Davos. Which of the global elites who were friends with Epstein were friends with Philippine personalities?  Did Epstein have businesses in the Philippines? Did he ever visit the Philippines? 

Certainly guilt by association is a fallacy which proves nothing but still these connections should be probed. The reach of Epstein was global and he was not a lone actor. He had financiers. He had backers. How do those people play into Philippine politics? 

Let's not forget the Philippines is the number one hub for child exploitation and Epstein was very much into that. How does that factor in? Did any Filipino infants, children, or young people end up in his orbit or on his island?

These are questions which will likely never find conclusive answers but they must be asked all the same. 

Filipinos Shilled Online For Jeffery Epstein

The revelations from the Epstein files continue to pile up. In a previous article it was noted that Epstein employed Filipino helpers and servants who could be material witnesses to the crimes of the elite. Now we learn that a team of Filipinos in the Philippines, employed by Ghislaine Maxwell's sisters husband, was manipulating Google to cover-up for Epstein. 

 https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2026/02/09/2506707/how-philippines-based-ops-tried-bury-jeffrey-epsteins-bad-press

Long before his 2019 arrest, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was already working to erase his criminal past from the internet.

By 2010, Jeffrey Epstein was already a convicted sex offender and on probation after a year in jail. Still very wealthy and socially connected, he was desperate to have his public reputation swept clean.

Unfortunately for him, Google was beginning to show results while users typed on its search box. Auto-suggestions would yield "jail" and "pedophile" tied to the American financier's name. References to his crimes, guilty plea and jailtime dominated search results.

Among the 20,000 pages of "Epstein Files" recently released by the U.S. Department of Justice were email exchanges that follow how Epstein turned to Al Seckel, the husband of hte sister of his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, to lead the damage-control campaign.

Seckel, a self-styled "optical illusions" collector, proposed a blunt strategy: overwhelm negative search results with a flood of positive—and in some cases misleading—content until critical links slid out of view.

"I wish I could use all my creativity and powers to make it all go away instantaneously, but I can't," Seckel wrote in an email to Epstein in October 2010. "However, it is not a hopeless case, based on our analysis of it."

The approach relied on a simple premise of what is now considered old-school search engine optimization, or SEO: bury the bad links and boost the good.

"The greater the number of links, then the higher the ranking," Seckel explained.

He then appealed to Epstein's background as a math teacher in the 1970s, long before he was a multimilionaire. "Jeffrey, it's all mathematics, that's all it is, and all it ever will be." 

The emails indicated that Seckel hired a team based in the Philippines to fashion a moat of links around websites and pages they created on Epstein and others who share his name. His supposed involvement in sports, science and philanthropy would be a highlight on these new sites.

"Our group in the Philippines is building links and links to our sites, pseudo sites, and the other Jeffrey Epsteins of the world," Seckel wrote. 

He argued that once automated web crawlers revisited search results, Epstein’s critics would instead see favorable or unrelated content created by his team.

"Then the old sites will just get moved out of the way. Poof. We just need more links than [sic] them," Seckel said.

The operation was not a one-off magic trick of the "illusions" enthusiast. It followed a playbook common to PR firms at the time, offering "reputation management" services designed to game search algorithms. A 2012 Wall Street Journal report detailed how such firms buried negative coverage for companies and individuals while amplifying positive narratives.

While it sounded simple enough, Seckel kept fixing for Epstein what proved to be a neverending campaign. 

"We are quite exhausted because this job is so incredibly massive and intensive, and we are under a lot of pressure to give you the results you would want," he wrote in another October 2010 email to Epstein.

A key focus of the effort was Wikipedia. Seckel forwarded an email from a "team leader" describing how extensive the efforts are for Epstein in the country.

"Philippines are [sic] continuing to do a lot of backend work, with additional work as soon as they receive the articles and photos from Jeff," they wrote. 

Repeated attempts to remove or soften referencs to Epstein's criminal records were reversed by other users monitoring the page.

"He has over twenty people with google alerts on him, who go and undo our edits every time we remove material," the team leader wrote, adding that "more extreme measures" might be needed.

The team also Seckel for more funding for the job.

"Once additional money comes in I can continue to start pimping the 'other' Jeffrey Epsteins that already exist on the web, trying to jump them up in rankings," they said. "You've already seen the kind of work effort I will bring to this project, so I'm counting on you to make this happen and provide me the material and funding that I need."

It took Seckel and the team two months to scrub Wikipedia and search results of what they called "toxic" terms.

"We have stopped the hacking on your wiki site, and that was a major effort. Your wiki entry now is pretty tame, and bad stuff has been muted, bowlerized, and pused to the bottom," Seckel wrote. "This was a big success."

The service commanded a retainer of $10,000 to $20,000 a month, or roughly P450,000 to P900,000. Epstein objected to the escalating costs.

"I was never told... that there was a 10k fee per month„ you inittaly [sic] said the project would take 20.. then another 10. then another 10," Epstein wrote in one exchange, complaining about the incremental charges.

To this, Seckel shot a sharp response.

"We were trying to fix up your mess. I didn't create it. Just thought it would be something to help. This was NEVER about trying to pull money out of you, and fact, we have don't everything possible to keep the costs down considerably," he wrote on Dec. 16, 2010.

While his reputation still suffered in public, Epstein was not exiled from his private, elite networks. The cleaned up search results, at least for a time, kept invitations coming.

Documents showed the convicted sex offender still had a full social calendar in the years after 2010, speaking and meeting with director Woody Allen, famed professor Noam Chomsky, and British billionaires Richard Branson and Bill Gates, among others.

He went on to acquire a second private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2018 and entertained charity calls, including a fundraiser for typhoon-hit Tacloban in 2014.

Explosive accusations by former victim Virginia Giuffre surfaced in 2015, helping Epstein's cases return to the spotlight.

It was also the year Seckel reportedly died, with accounts saying his body was found at the "bottom of a cliff" near his home in France.

Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal charges accusing him of trafficking and abusing underage girls, some as young as 14, across multiple locations in the United States and abroad.

He died in custody in August 2019 while awaiting trial.

The name and location of this operation has not been revealed. Is it still active today working on other outsourced internet shenanigans? 

What's more important about this article than Epstein's Philippines connection is what this means for local elections. There has been plenty written about bots manipulating both the 2016 and 2022 elections. Troll farms abound in the Philippines with the sole purpose of manipulating truth. 

As social media giants like Facebook and Twitter play cat-and-mouse with coordinated keyboard warriors who spread disinformation, prop up political clients or smear their opponents, historical whitewashing is finding new homes. Pro-Marcos propaganda is now proliferating on platforms like TikTok and YouTube that appeal primarily to Gen Z, ushering in a new era of fun, hip, glossily edited content that is harder to regulate online.

In the global war on the truth, the Philippines is especially vulnerable. About 99 percent of its population is online, and over half find it difficult to spot fake news. President Rodrigo Duterte rose to power in 2016 aided by a keyboard army and online hate campaigns, forever changing the online landscape.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/12/philippines-marcos-memory-election/

And it's not just the Philippines. 

Across the Philippines, it’s a virtual free-for-all. Trolls for companies. Trolls for celebrities. Trolls for liberal opposition politicians and the government. Trolls trolling trolls.

The world of Internet trolls — the gaslighting, the fabrications, the nastiness — is now a fact of life in the Web ecosystem nearly everywhere.

But something new is happening here: Experienced public relations experts in the Philippines are harnessing the raw energy of young and aggressive social media shape-shifters.

They are dramatically altering the political landscape in the Philippines with almost complete impunity — shielded by politicians who are so deep into this practice that they will not legislate against it, and using the cover of established PR firms that quietly offer these services. 

It is also showing signs of going global — with the Philippines as a hub — as the United States and countries across the world move into another election cycle in the troll age.

“This is what disinformation will look like in the U.S. in 2020,” said Camille François, chief innovation officer at the New York-based social network analysis company Graphika. 

Political manipulation, she said, does not need to come from an ill-intentioned enemy state. It can originate with those who have cut their teeth in the competitive worlds of advertising, media and marketing. Social media companies, she added, were caught off guard before — notably in the U.S. presidential election in 2016 — and could be yet again with this new iteration. 

“The Philippines shows us trends that are headed this way,” said François, who led a report commissioned by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence investigating Russian trolls in the United States. “And, it is 2019, the market is global — so they will find jobs outside of their own nation.” 

These ambitious operators now want to turn their country into the go-to place to influence corporate and political campaigns worldwide — using the same young, educated, English-speaking workforce that made the Philippines a global call center and content moderation hub.

The Washington Post interviewed over half a dozen paid trolls, who all spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity and illegality of their work. They offered a glimpse into how Philippine trolls are shaping politics in their country and possibly showing signs of things to come elsewhere.

For the Senate candidate, for example, the hired trolls worked round-the-clock to flood platforms such as Twitter and Facebook with seemingly organic messages of support. Fans leaped to his defense, debated his critics and sang praises of his leadership style ahead of crucial midterm elections that were held in May. 

Except it is all an illusion, manufactured by hundreds of fake accounts all meticulously tracked on a spreadsheet. 

“This one, she is a fan of K-pop,” said one female worker, pointing to an open Twitter page showing the fake profile of a young, pink-cheeked woman. Buried among her fan posts for bands such as BTS are messages in support of the Senate candidate. The more likes and retweets, the better she’s doing.

The candidate was not elected, but he came close. 

Several paid troll farm operations and one self-described influencer say they have been approached and contracted by international clients, including from Britain, to do political work. Others are planning to expand overseas, hoping to start regionally. 

“It has all become an enterprise,” said Yvonne Chua, a journalism professor at the University of the Philippines who has extensively researched misinformation on the Internet. 

“It has come to a point where you can rely on the Philippines for all sorts of things: trolls, click farms, whatever you want.” 

https://archive.is/gqMsS

The Philippines offers two things that are in great demand: 1. Many Filipinos are proficient in English and 2. Filipinos will work for peanuts. Thats why call centers are outsourced here and why NYC has virtual cashiers based in Manila. 

https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/567764/filipino-virtual-cashiers-taking-orders-at-new-york-restaurants

Your next order of fried chicken at a New York City restaurant may come with a “hello” from the Philippines.

Virtual assistants based in the Philippines have become a sought-after option for companies who want to do more with less.

 Some restaurants in New York City are now exploring this option to keep up with the rising costs of labor, rent and other overhead expenses.

As minimum wages soar – $16 in New York City and now $20 for fast food workers in California – restaurant owners are feeling the pinch.

Beamed on flat-screen monitors at self-service kiosks, virtual hosts from the Philippines are now taking orders at restaurants, including Yaso Kitchen, Sansan Chicken in Long Island and East Village. They welcome customers with flashing smiles — a hospitality trait Filipinos are renowned for.

The company pays Filipino virtual assistants $3 per hour — way less compared to US wages but considered a competitive rate in the Philippines.

Aiming to incorporate fair wages into fiscal accountability, Chi Zhang told Fortune, “We pay 150% more than the average cashier job in the Philippines.”

Like all virtual assistants from the Philippines, recognized as one of the largest English-speaking nations, Amber and other Filipinos working for Happy Cashiers speak perfect English.

Absolutely none of this should come as a surprise unless you are a normie who believes everything they see on the internet and are not a veteran of the Great Meme War of 2016 as well as the skirmishes which continue to this day. 

What is important to note here is the Philippines' central role in manipulating online perception around the globe. It's in the same category as the Philippines being the number one hub of OCSAM. As small as it is this archipelago nation plays a pivotal role in global politics and crime. 

Filipinos In the Epstein Files Witnessed Global Elites Commit Sex Crimes

Filipinos are everywhere. They are even in the Epstein Files! But it's not the rich and powerful Filipinos such as the Marcoses or Villars and Tans whose names appear in the files. There are global Filipinos who attend the World Economic Forum in Davos but did any of them set foot on Little St. James? Instead it's the lowly drivers and housemaids whose names appear unredacted. One writer laments this as a grave injustice. 

https://usa.inquirer.net/188800/opinion-the-invisible-filipinos-in-the-epstein-files

If you were in the Epstein Files would you be proud? Or would you feel shamed?

I found some Filipino names in there, and my first question is why weren’t these names redacted along with the other victims who were sexually abused?

The three million page dump of the Epstein files are overwhelming – like trying to catch up on a Russian literature class  the week before finals. The scale alone ensures that only certain stories will be told.

And sure enough, the early focus has been predictable: celebrity names. Trump. Clinton. Musk. Billionaires. The powerful people who drive clicks and headlines.

Meanwhile, another group has been exposed without protection and without voice: the workers who made Jeffrey Epstein’s life function.

This is not a metaphor. It is literal.

The files contain names, résumés, contact information and employment histories of household staff, yacht crew and service workers recruited through agencies. I won’t mention them here because I don’t want to add to the offense. Many of these workers were Filipino – part of a global labor pipeline that has long supplied wealthy households with compliant, replaceable service labor.

Their information is not meaningfully redacted.

The girls who were abused must – and should – remain the priority. They were victims of sexual violence and trafficking. That hierarchy matters.

Another injustice

But recognizing that truth does not require ignoring another injustice unfolding in plain sight.

What happened to these workers is not just embarrassing exposure. It is unequal exposure – and that is the injustice.

The Epstein files bend over backward to protect the reputations of the powerful. Redactions obscure elite identities. Legal language shields decision-makers. Accountability diffuses upward until it disappears.

But workers – especially migrant workers – are left naked in the record.

Names searchable forever. Résumés frozen in time. Phone numbers traceable.

That is not transparency. That is downward accountability without power.

Silence

These workers were embedded in a criminal ecosystem they did not design, control or profit from. They did not have leverage. They did not have lawyers. They did not have the freedom to speak – because NDAs, immigration status, financial precarity, and the unspoken rules of elite service work all pointed in one direction: silence.

That silence was not freely chosen. It was coerced by structure.

For migrant service workers – especially Filipinos – employment is rarely just a job. It is tied to remittances, visas, family survival and obligation. Breaking an NDA doesn’t just risk a lawsuit. It risks deportation, blacklisting and economic collapse for families thousands of miles away.

Now, years later, these same workers are publicly identifiable in government-released files – without warning, consent or protection.

That is harm.

It exposes them to stigma: You worked for Epstein. It exposes them to suspicion: What did you see? What did you know? It exposes them to retaliation from future employers who don’t want “complications.”

And it does so without offering legal support, anonymity or a path to tell their own stories.

That is not accountability. That is scapegoating by omission.

There is also a racial and labor hierarchy the files reveal with bureaucratic indifference.

Invisible

Filipinos appear again and again as “the help” – butlers, house managers, yacht crew, domestic staff. This is not accidental. It reflects a global racialized labor system where Filipinos are trained, marketed and perceived as obedient, grateful and invisible.

When elites grow accustomed to Filipinos as servants inside private compounds, it bleeds into how Filipinos are seen everywhere else: not as colleagues, not as equals, but as support staff in someone else’s world.

In earlier centuries, these workers would have been enslaved. Today, they are paid – and we are told that makes the arrangement fair.

It doesn’t.

Payment does not erase exploitation when power is this unequal and exit is this constrained.

The injustice here is not that workers existed.

It’s that when the reckoning came, they were exposed while the powerful were shielded.

True accountability punches up.

This punched down.

If the Epstein files reveal how sexual abuse was enabled, they also reveal how elite crime is sustained – by armies of invisible workers whose vulnerability is treated as collateral damage.

Seeing that is not a distraction from justice.

It is part of it.

The fix

There is a fix – and it requires choosing sides. When the government releases massive investigative records, it must stop protecting power while exposing labor. Redaction rules should automatically shield domestic and service workers, especially migrant workers, unless there is clear evidence of criminal liability.

For Filipino labor in particular – often recruited through agencies, bound by NDAs and tethered to visas and remittances – there must be mandatory anonymization, advance notice before disclosure and access to independent legal counsel and trauma-informed support. Names, résumés and contact details should never be released by default. Transparency that punches down is not transparency – it’s exploitation by paperwork.

If accountability is real, it must not protect the powerful,  while exposing  Filipino migrant workers and other invisible laborers as collateral damage – so Congress, the DOJ and the media need to fix this now or admit that “transparency” is just another word for exploitation.

Until that’s done, the most honest reading of the Epstein files isn’t that justice is finally being done.

It’s that power is still deciding who gets protected – and who gets sacrificed.

Boo-hoo Filipinos are exploited by the rich and powerful to do menial labor. They are actually slaves. Paid, but slaves. Surely this writer is aware that the government encourages Filipinos to be overseas workers? 

Let’s drop the faux-naïveté about exploitation for a moment. Filipinos being used for menial labor by the global elite is not a revelation. The Philippine government openly encourages it. There is an entire bureaucracy devoted to exporting labor. The DFA proudly calls overseas Filipinos part of the country’s soft power. Since the 1970s, Filipinos have been deliberately deployed abroad as instruments of foreign policy.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1217840

Diaspora, or the spreading of Filipinos across the globe along with the Filipino culture, is the country's “soft power”, an official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Monday.

In diplomacy, soft power is the ability of a nation to influence other nations through attraction and persuasion instead of force or intimidation.

"We send our people or they themselves go without government intervention or support. We deploy our workers, beginning 1973 in the oil crisis, caused by the conflict between Israel and their cousin, the Arabs but not just as workers," DFA Undersecretary Eduardo Jose de Vega said during his speech at a multi-stakeholder symposium.

He said these Filipinos sent abroad are instruments of the country's foreign policy.

"Oftentimes, especially after Republic Act 8042, our diaspora drives our foreign policy," he added.

So spare us the sudden moral shock. If this is exploitation, the proper address is not an opinion column, it’s Malacañang.

Jeffery Epstein is dead. No one is working for him anymore. Any NDA that these people signed while working for him should be ignored as legally and morally irrelevant. Silence no longer protects anyone except the living elites who benefited from it. These people are perhaps eyewitnesses to crimes committed by the elites who run this world. And the author treats that like its shameful!

Now, years later, these same workers are publicly identifiable in government-released files – without warning, consent or protection.

That is harm.

It exposes them to stigma: You worked for Epstein. It exposes them to suspicion: What did you see? What did you know? It exposes them to retaliation from future employers who don’t want “complications.”

Those aren’t accusations. Those are investigative questions.

Those menial workers are material witnesses and their testimony needs to be heard. No doubt in the coming years researchers and investigators will be contacting these people to obtain the necessary details. Some of them could write books about their time being Epstein's driver or pool boy. 

But, as the author laments, these Filipino servants are invisible. It could be no investigator will come knocking on their door. In that case the solution would be for them to go public on their own. 

Assassinated Citizens January, 2026

Assassination is normal in the Philippines not only for government officials but also for regular citizens. The most common method of assassination for both citizens and officials is a motorcycle duo riding up on the target and then blasting them away. This series will document the number of citizens assassinated on a monthly basis. These stories are to be distinguished from regular murder cases which happen on a daily basis. 

 

https://mb.com.ph/2026/01/02/ofw-gunned-down-in-quezon

A 42-year-old Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) was gunned down and her friend, also an OFW, was wounded on New Year’s Day in Sitio Usiw in Barangay Ayusan 1, this town. 

Police identified the fatality as Julie, single. 

The victim was driving a motorcycle and was about to fetch Cess when gunmen on a motorcycle appeared and fired at the victims. 

Julie died on the spot. Cess was taken to a hospital. 

The suspects fled towards Barangay Ayusan II. 

Police are conducting follow-up investigation and manhunt operations.

Assassinated Citizens December, 2025

Assassination is normal in the Philippines not only for government officials but also for regular citizens. The most common method of assassination for both citizens and officials is a motorcycle duo riding up on the target and then blasting them away. This series will document the number of citizens assassinated on a monthly basis. These stories are to be distinguished from regular murder cases which happen on a daily basis. 

https://mb.com.ph/2025/12/03/2-gunmen-wanted-for-shooting-woman-dead-in-antipolo

Authorities are now hunting down two unidentified men who shot a woman dead in Antipolo City early Wednesday, Dec. 3.

According to the Antipolo City Component Police Station (Antipolo CCPS), the incident occurred around 12:55 a.m. at Purok 5, Zone 8, Barangay Cupang.

Based on their initial investigation, the victim, identified as “Camille,” was walking home from Marikina when the two suspects allegedly appeared from behind her, and one of them shot her once in the head without any apparent reason.

The incident resulted in her immediate death.

The suspects then fled on foot toward a nearby alley.

Antipolo CCPS said they have requested the assistance of the SOCO team for crime scene processing.

They are now conducting a follow-up investigation to identify and locate the suspects.

 

https://mb.com.ph/2025/12/14/woman-gunned-down-in-laguna

A woman was shot dead in Cabuyao City, Laguna province, on Saturday, Dec. 13.

Police identified the victim as Rose Ann.

The victim was sitting in front of the main gate of Citadel Subdivision, Purok 3, Barangay Mamatid, at about 10:35 p.m. when two unidentified men wearing black jackets and riding a white motorcycle arrived.

A confrontation erupted and one of the suspects shot the victim twice with a handgun.

She was taken to a hospital here she was declared from bullet wounds.

Meanwhile, a 20-year-old tricycle driver was shot and wounded by an unidentified man in Barangay San Jose on Saturday.

Victim Raian was driving his tricycle when the suspect driving a motorcycle appeared and shot him in the head.

Raian was taken to a hospital where he is recovering.

https://mb.com.ph/2025/12/15/medical-representative-shot-dead-in-zamboanga-city

A medical representative was shot dead here on Sunday night, Dec. 14.

Police identified the victim as 43-year-old Nicolai Torres Asistido.

Investigation said the victim was talking to a companion on Calle Real St. in Barangay Mercedes when a man onboard a motorcycle appeared and shot him.

Asistido died on the spot from multiple bullet wounds. The suspect fled towards the MCLL Highway.

Police are conducting follow-up investigation.

https://mb.com.ph/2025/12/15/gunmen-shoot-livestock-buyer-dead

A 54-year-old livestock buyer was shot dead in Barangay Camansi, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental on Sunday, Dec. 14.

The victim was identified as Alberto.

Police Lt. Col. Roberto Indiape Jr., Kabankalan police chief, said the victim was fixing a motorcycle when two men arrived and shot him.

The victim was wounded in the head and back and was declared dead in a hospital.

Recovered from the crime scene were two fired cartridges of a .45 caliber pistol.

Police said the incident may be insurgency-related since the victim allegedly introduced himself as a government asset.

Indiape added that the victim’s older brother was killed in an encounter with the military in Barangay Camansi in 2022.

He said the victim’s family is hesitant to provide more information due to the sensitivity of the case and security reasons.

https://www.philstar.com/nation/2026/01/01/2498076/man-killed-maguindanao-del-norte-attack

A man was killed in an attack by motorcycle-riding assailants in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao del Norte on Tuesday night.

Rotas Mastura was on his way home on a motorcycle when he was killed in Barangay Macaguiling, according to Lt. Col. Hector Tanio Jr., Sultan Kudarat police chief.

Mastura died at the scene from six gunshot wounds in the body.

Witnesses said the assailants fled on a motorcycle.

Probers have yet to determine the motive for the killing and identify suspects.

https://mb.com.ph/2025/12/31/farm-specialist-killed-in-abra

A lone gunman shot and killed a farm specialist of the Mount Carmel Agri-Tourism and Training Center in Sitio Sinilagan, Barangay Lusuac, Peñarrubia, Abra, on Tuesday, Dec. 30.

Police identified the victim as Daniel Fatorog Pog-ok, 53, of Sadanga, Mountain Province.

Investigation said the victim was sleeping in his room when the suspect forced his way in by breaking the door knob and shooting him in the head.

The Abra Diocesan Teachers and Employees Multi-Purpose Cooperative, which manages the facility, condemned the killing.

Pog-ok, they said, is kind, hardworking, and good at teaching in the field of agriculture.

Follow-up investigation is ongoing.

 

More Evidence the Philippine Justice System is Broken

If there is a truism to be said about the Philippine justice system it is that it is broken. This does not mean the Philippines lacks laws or law enforcement. It does not mean that criminals are not rightly prosecuted. What it does mean is taken comprehensively the Philippine justice system is filled with so many pitfalls which need patching and which make it unreliable. 

Take the following case.

https://mb.com.ph/2025/08/26/instead-of-only-30-days-woman-stayed-in-jail-for-over-23-years

A woman, who should have been imprisoned for only 30 days for slight physical injuries, stayed in jail for 23 years at the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City.

More than 40 years old now, the woman – whose name was not disclosed – was convicted of murder almost 25 years ago by the trial court.

Murder is punishable with reclusion perpetua or a prison term ranging from 20 to 40 years.

On appeal to the Supreme Court (SC) the conviction was reversed and was meted out a jail term of 30 days for slight physical injuries, recalled Department of Justice Undersecretary Margarita Gutierrez.

The SC decision could not be accessed since the name of the woman and the case number of the appeal were not disclosed.

Undersecretary Gutierrez said the woman was released on Christmas Day in 2024 after the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) issued a writ of habeas corpus sought by the lawyers of the DOJ Action Center (DOJAC).

Gutierrez, who heads the DOJAC, said the RTC acted on the basis of the SC’s decision that was issued in January 2024.

Had not the DOJAC intervened and acted on the plea for help by the woman, she would still be at the CIW, Gutierrez said.

Based on her recollection of the case, Gutierrez said the woman and her two male co-accused were convicted of murder for the killing of her alleged rapist.

Gutierrez said she learned that the woman had a drinking spree with some male companions when one of them tried to sexually abuse her.

Fortunately, the woman said her two male companions managed to stop the rapist whom they beat up and died from multiple stab wounds.

When the case reached the Supreme Court, Gutierrez said the High Court found that the woman merely beat up her rapist and it was one of her companions who stabbed him to death.

Despite the SC ruling, the woman could not be released from jail because of the pending motion to reconsider the High Court’s decision, Gutierrez said.

The DOJAC decided to seek the issuance of a habeas corpus before the RTC considering that the SC had reversed her murder conviction and had over served her jail term for almost 23 years instead of only 30 days, she added.

25 years ago a lady was convicted of murder and sentenced to a prison term between 20 and 40 years. On appeal the Supreme Court reversed her conviction and reduced her sentenced to 30 days on a significantly lesser charge. Rather than release her immediately she was kept in prison due to a "pending motion to reconsider the High Court’s decision."

There are four things to consider here. 

1. How is it the SC found different facts from the lower courts? This discrepancy is significant and shows the incompetence of the judge which convicted this lady. 

2. Why would the SC decision not be immediately executable? Why did this lady need to sit in prison while the case as being reconsidered? The article does not say.

3. Why was the motion for reconsideration never brought forward and the woman allowed to rot in prison? More than likely because she is poor with no sufficient legal representation. If the DOJAC had not taken up her case she would still be in prison. There is nothing to indicate how they became aware of her plight.

4. How many more people share her condition? How many more Filipinos are unjustly imprisoned due to incompetent lower court judges?

When someone is rightly convicted and people cheer and say, "Look the Philippine justice system works," they must be corrected and pointed to cases like this. In the grand scheme of things the injustice against this lady is not anomaly. It happens every day.