Interview with an assassin
I casually mentioned in my column two weeks ago (“Infantile outbursts, murderous intents,” 11/29/24) that I had interviewed an assassin decades ago for an article in the Sunday Inquirer Magazine (“Confessions of a Hired Assassin”).
I mentioned it in relation to the recent rants of the Vice President who publicly announced that she had already contacted an assassin who would make the President, the First Lady, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives bite the dust in case she herself was assassinated first. She called it “a revenge from the grave.”
Not a few asked where they could find my article, a long one, by the way. It is not yet among the digitalized Inquirer articles that can be read online. But it is in one of my seven books, “Journalist in Her Country: Articles, Essays and Photographs,” which is out of print. I might do a new edition.
The retired assassin is the long-lost brother of two generals in the Armed Forces of the Philippines. We had two long conversations at the Villamor Air Base Club House. (A hint on who the top brass AFP brothers are.) Our Inquirer photographer had him pose with his .45 caliber firearm.
Excerpts from the introduction to the long article:
“During the period of more than 30 years, he had been involved in 17 neatly planned murders, a number of them political assassinations. In several of them, he was himself the triggerman. He did jobs for all kinds of people, some of them politicians, rich and powerful persons, and even for the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Some of his targets got in the way of those who had hired him. But he did not work alone. He worked with a team. He worked for a boss, an underworld ‘godfather’ who oversaw operations and had the contacts.
“The man not only killed, he also worked to protect the lives of the powerful … Terminating lives had brought him to many places. He mingled with the high and mighty, his shadow trailing those he meant to exterminate or to protect. He saw how they lived, how they made money, how they lusted for power, how they devoured women. He himself had his share of all these. Proof: 17 children by five ‘wives.’
“The man has retired but now has a new career. But he still receives a monthly pension as a retired US federal employee.
“The authenticity of the subject and his story has been confirmed by his half-brother, the AFP general, who helped him make a clean break with his past. He passed away several years ago.
“Is there a stereotyped look in a cold-blooded killer?
“Adolf (not his real name) has no devilish laugh nor mean looks. There is a seriousness, a grimness about him. If he had an aura, the color would be gun-metal grey.
“‘I am very observant, hija,’ he says during our second meeting, his way of saying he is a stalker of human targets after all.”
(Because of space limitations, I skip his growing up years—what he knew about the circumstances of his birth, a story in itself.)
“Adolf carried out his first murder when he was 15. His motive was revenge. (Long story.) His victim was a cop. ‘I shot him while he was asleep in his own home,’ Adolf says. To make his revenge even sweeter, he later had an affair with the dead cop’s widow…
“The power of the gun had Adolf under its spell. He did not care for school. After a few engineering units, he quit. He joined smuggling operations and plied the Cavite-Borneo route aboard a kumpit. Adolf would later land a regular job at the Subic Naval Base where he started as a driver of a trailer. His boss, a CIA agent who knew about Adolf’s other ‘jobs,’ gave him leeway.
“Adolf also talks about an operation up north where they killed a candidate’s campaign leader. ‘We were six and I was the group leader. We were in three cars with fake plates. We stopped by a barrio for a briefing and were given photos of the target. We almost failed because one of the cars stalled. But we got him anyway.’ Each one received P35,000 for the job, a big sum at that time.
“He scoffs at a slum boy who grew up to be a slum lord, whose life story was made into a movie. His handlers could no longer handle him. ‘Isang bala lang siya (It took only one bullet).’
“‘In an operation, there must be a back-up killer. When the one assigned fails to bring down the target, the back-up must do the job.’
“So far, Adolf says, no one among them has been caught during an operation. ‘Wounded, yes. And he had to be finished off by us or he would be made to talk. We know this could happen to us.’ Adolf felt relieved he was not the one who finished off their disabled companion. Adolf himself had survived several ambushes. And for some time he felt paranoid.
“’A few more years to live and that would be good enough. I am ready to go any time. I review my life again and again and it all seems so normal.’ Quote the assassin, the terminator.”
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