Persona Non Grata

Act II Prologue

It was another June afternoon in the editor's office, and we have been shuffling through hundreds of pages of the manifest of a shipment received in the south harbor some months ago. I was lucky enough to get in contact with one of the Filipino cargadores who worked closely with the harbor master, and got my hands on the document to aid me in my investigation. The night before yesterday, two Civil Guards allegedly single-handedly thwarted a heist of a band of tulisanes in one of the harbor's warehouses. Alarming as the sentence might sound, the unfortunate event uncovered something far more sinister than the one we have at hand. I discovered during my investigation that the crates that were reacquired from the bandits were listed as "gardening tools" in the manifest - and these are actually obsolete, but still usable high-caliber rifles. The manifest also lists a number of other suspicious things, such as 'medical' nitroglycerin and bottles of opium tinctures, which are highly regulated substances since Captain-General Leonardo Montes came to power.

And thus, it begs the question: how in blazes did all of this get past customs?

"This is indeed a great find, Vidañes. Our readers would definitely be excited to see the fruits of our investigations in our next articles!" exclaimed the chief editor, who heaved heavily as he huffed and puffed from his cigar in his excitement. 

"This is still just speculation, sir." I gently rebuked. "We will need to collect further evidences to make any substantial claims in this conspiracy. For now, don't you think I should be writing articles following the developments of this unfortunate event for the meantime?"

"Well, what do we have so far?" the editor asked.

"For a start, sir, I found out that in the aftermath of the coordinated attack of the bandits, it is revealed that the Guardia Civil suffered far lesser casualties compared to the tulisanes. Three to eleven, in favor of the Guardia Civil. It seemed that the funds invested on the wages and training of the Indio soldiers actually paid off." I remarked.

"Truly? How come? This is indeed interesting...this has never happened before." the editor noted. "The last time the Guardia Civil had an encounter with them, the tulisanes made a fool of our soldiers."

Ahh, yes." I agreed. "Those were the days. Matanglawin's band has been a terror in Manila and in the southern provinces for too long. I suppose nobody wins for long, eh?" 

"Indeed!" the editor seconded, puffing out another stream of smoke.