Yesterday’s first-ever visit to the barangay office was a bit of a fiasco. Or should I just say that everything was done in typical Filipino fashion? Oh wait, those are both the same thing. Anyway, here’s the story with the background reasoning of why I was even there despite having pledged to myself not to go.

Alright, if you’ve been following along, the barangay crap is one the ongoing repercussions from the insane events on the return trip from Sampaloc Cove I wrote about here. During that fateful boat ride, one of the recipients of the drunken physical abuse administered by Hana and Resa was naturally pissed off. Once we reached shore she and her foreigner boyfriend, we’ll call him Jeff, went to file charges with the police. The police apparently referred them to the barangay to seek resolution.

Alright, let’s briefly explain what a barangay does, or better yet, let’s let Wikipedia do that:

A barangay (/bɑːrɑːŋˈɡaɪ/ (abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy., may also be as Bo.), sometimes referred to as barrio, is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district or ward. In metropolitan areas, the term often refers to an inner city neighbourhood, a suburb or a suburban neighborhood.^[1] The word barangay originated from balangay, a kind of boat used by a group of Austronesian peoples when they migrated to the Philippines

And why you might ask would the barangay get involved in what is seemingly a police matter?

The Barangay Justice System or Katarungang Pambarangay is composed of members commonly known as Lupon Tagapamayapa (Justice of the peace). Their function is to conciliate and mediate disputes at the Barangay level to avoid legal action and relieve the courts of docket congestion.

So, the general consensus of those on the trip is that what happened on the boat should have stayed on the boat. Which is why I and most of the others were not inclined to get involved in Jeff’s complaint. And then the plot thickened when the instigators (Hana and Resa) filed a counterclaim with the barangay asserting that Jeff had physically attacked and choked Resa. Oh brother.

I had ignored Jeff’s attempts to contact me through Facebook messenger; sticking to my decision not to get involved in this nonsense. He cornered me at the Hash and pleaded with me to come and tell what I saw so that he would not be charged with a criminal complaint. Damn. Well, here’s the thing. As much as I don’t want to be involved I can’t sit idly by and watch a fellow foreigner get railroaded by the bitches who caused the trouble and committed the violence. Two Filipinas testifying against the white guy carries a lot of weight in a “justice” system that favors the locals in almost all circumstances. It is the reason I made a decision not to drive here, I knew any accident would automatically be my fault.

I know I’d want someone to stand up for me in a situation like this (even though Jeff brought it on himself by complaining in the first place) so I reluctantly agreed to show up yesterday at 2:30 to explain what I witnessed. And just what did I witness? Well, when crazy Resa was acting like she was going to jump off the boat, Jeff held her down while others attempted to put a life jacket on her. Resa resisted the effort and so Jeff let her go and sat back down. The counterclaim is that Jeff punched and choked Resa which just didn’t happen. Oh, and I also saw Hana punching Jeff’s girlfriend. That’s really all I can say.

So, I got there a few minutes early. I wasn’t sure where to go so I waited outside. I was happy to see several others from the boat ride show up as well, including guys with their Filipina girlfriends. Again, testimony from a local carries more weight from everything I’ve heard and seen. Anyway, Jeff and his gal arrive and he tells us that the meeting is not until 3:00 p.m. He goes inside the barangay office and comes out a few minutes later to tell us that the barangay officials want to talk to the complainants first and will take our statements afterward. Right at 3:00 Hana and Resa walked by our group and went inside the barangay without a word, although they didn’t appear too happy to see us all there.

And so we waited. And waited. Just before 4:00, Jeff comes back out and advises that the barangay folks will not be taking statements today after all. Apparently they used their allotted time in a failed effort to mediate the dispute. So now we’ve all been asked to come back next Tuesday afternoon to provide witness statements. Jeff thanked us profusely for coming and said that Hana and Resa were being completely vindictive and wanted to see Jeff being declared a woman abuser and potentially deported. That’s really fucked up, especially given the fact that the only violence that occurred was at the hands of these two crazy bitches. So yeah, I guess I need to go back next week.

I then proceeded to break my 5 o’clock rule and join my fellow witnesses for beers at Cheap Charlies.