Trannies are everywhere in the Philippines. They function as household help, beauticians, masseuses, and other employments. There are tranny beauty pageants and Ru Paul's Drag Race Philippines recently began airing. But all is not so beautiful in the Philippine transexual subculture. There are many who, as Gandalf says, shall not pass. All they need is a little surgery to remove their god-given sexual organs and add new ones. But how to get the money? Why not kidnapping?
Members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) dismantled a kidnapping syndicate whose members are transgenders.
In a press briefing at Camp Crame, Quezon City on Tuesday, CIDG director Brig. Gen. Ronald Lee identified the suspects as Francis Villa, Lawrenza Lingo, Johnas Belonio, Bernard Torres and Mark Joseph Pelonio, all members of the "Warla" kidnapping group.
They were nabbed in a joint operation with the PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group, National Capital Region Police Office and military troops on Oct. 1.
Lee said the modus of the group is to lure victims from dating apps and sites to meet up with their good-looking members.
Once abducted, the victims are brought to their safehouse and the suspects demand money from them in exchange for their release.
After receiving the ransom, the suspects drop off the victims in random places around Metro Manila.
The group is said to be operating in the southern part of Metro Manila, specifically in ParaƱaque, Pasay, Taguig, and Makati and has victimized around 14 persons.
They were able to collect total ransom money amounting to PHP4.2 million which will be used for their sex reassignment surgery or “sex change”.
Lee said the group was made known to the police after Taiwanese victim Michael Lee was rescued on Sept. 7 in ParaƱaque City, after he was abducted on Sept. 3.
The kidnapping group demanded a sum of money from the victim’s friends in exchange for his freedom. The victim’s friends were able to send money to five different digital wallets reaching a total of PHP308,000.
“For the longest time that I have been in anti-kidnapping operations, this is the first time we have encountered this group of transgenders who have already victimized 14 people. We are still backtracking to find out who they are and fortunately, Michael Lee complained and sought the help of the Taiwan police so that was the breakthrough in this case,” Lee said in Filipino.
Take note here. The reason this gang was found out was because the Taiwanese victim they kidnapped complained to the police. That means NOBODY else complained to the police!
Lee said the kidnapping group is led by a certain Mikey Ebol, a.k.a Mike Collado Ebol, who is now hiding.
After trailing transactions of the group, the police located four other suspects who had already surrendered -- Dewie Shaine Collado Garcia, Charlemagne Olunan Vargas and Christian Paredes.
In their statements, they said the SIM (subscriber identity module) cards they owned were bought by Ebol.
During the investigation, Lee said the group was formed in 2018.
2018!!! For four years this group has operated undetected because no one complained until now and the complaint happened to be a foreigner!
Col. Hansel Marantan, CIDG National Capital Region field unit director, said the name of the group was coined from the gay lingo “warlalu” which means “let's get it on, let's go to war”.
“They will post themselves as beautiful women on Facebook to lure their prey. And that's it, once the victims are kidnapped, they will start negotiations like asking for PHP500,000 and the span of negotiations is very short. It takes only about three to four days and they use GCash as an avenue for the collection of money which is very hard to trace," he added.
Further probe revealed that the group is involved in the illegal sale of firearms.
"Let's go to war?" Who are they warring against? The straights? There is no information in this article as to what kind of firearms these "baklas," that's Filipino for tranny, were dealing in. Thankfully GMA has more information.
“The kidnapping group composed of particularly transwomen and their partners or we call them as the Warla criminal group. They have gained notoriety for posing as beautiful women before kidnapping their targets as soon as they agreed to meet them on a date,” CIDG chief Police Brigadier General Ronald Lee said in a press conference.
Lee added the group had been victimizing foreign nationals, particularly Asian nationals, since 2018. Some of the victims were POGO employees, though some were businessmen.
Meanwhile, the five other suspects - Jun Francis Pavillar Villa, Lawrenz Descartin Lingo, Jhonas Grimpula Belonio, Bernard Ty Torres, and Mark Joseph Dagame Pelonio - were arrested in entrapment operations involving illegal weapons.
The Warla kidnapping group was formed in 2018. Nine of its identified members are transgender women, according to the CIDG. It was led by a certain Mikey Ebol or Mike Collado Ebol, the police said.
Warla operates in the southern part of Metro Manila.
So far, the CIDG said the group already victimized around 14 victims and was able to collect P4.2 million in ransom money.
The CIDG said the arrested suspects told them that they would use the money for their sex reassignment surgery in Thailand.
Still nothing about the weapons found but from the looks of it they are ghost guns.
This is certainly the dark side of the tranny subculture in the Philippines. Not all of them want to cut off their johnson but those who do will go to extraordinary lengths it seems. And let's not forget they want to go to war? But against who?