Journey 32
The strategy that was to have been employed around Christmas time - was focusing even more clearly now. This was helped by a random communication I made to Sir Francis, under a Pseudonym - John Goodwin - who worked in real estate. He wrote about how disgusted he was that the Code of Ethical Practice for Realtors had been trashed, along with Sir Francis's personal ethics - and that the end result must surely be his regret and ridicule.
I sent the email to Sir Francis but CC'd it to his boss - who happened to read it first - I know this because the email was being tracked.
I was indeed surprised to get a response at all from Sir Francis - the first communication directly from him since August - although we had our strong suspicions that Sir Francis had access to Mayen's email account - he could masquerade as her if required - at least one email from "Mayen" over the Christmas period seems to support this theory.
Anyway - Sir Francis's reply to John Goodwin - he probably guessed that it was really me - although by a strange coincidence I have since discovered online a real John Goodwin - an estate agent - dealing in foreign properties. At first the reply had the power to really upset me, some of the memories of August, blurred through the fog of time - reared up to haunt me - mentions of things like "Mayen herself told me that she was willing to be Tim's wife" - really hit a deep spot inside me - strange - I thought I was over it.
But on reading for a second, third - many times - this email became more and more revealing.
I include it here - to speak for itself.
"4th January 2008
Dear John,
I hope you are aware that in the Internet, it is easy to fabricate & twist things from the truth. I am the victim in this particular incident. Please be rest assured that I am an honest & ethical person. I may have my own faults but never did I ever try to steal money from any fellow man. I don't need to & you can check my worth with the HSBC.
I met Tim Cumper when he first came to the Philippines thru his former girlfriend, Mayen (a former agent of mine on commission basis but whom together with other agents I gave some monetary help to alleviate their day to day needs) who I'm not sure if he has abandoned or still gets in touch with. We agreed that he help us promote our project in England which never took off the ground. If Mayen made misrepresentations to Tim, it is beyond me to intervene or get involved in. Their affair is better left to themselves to settle.
I was not aware of what was going on in private between them except for a few things that I myself witnessed when we were together & visited our project site, tour the countryside for a day &/or what they had planned for themselves that they divulged to me. I only found out from Tim himself that he had his suspisions of being scammed after the operation. Until I saw his blog, never did it cross my mind that Tim suspected me as one of the scammers. What made Tim think that I was a part of any scam? If there was a scam, then Mayen would be the key to this.
How Tim concluded that there is a "scam syndicate" in my marketing outfit, hospital staff & even people he talked to in the Philippine British embassy is out of bounds. No amount of explanation or facts we have given Tim has turned his opinionated conclusions & he has this fantasy that he is being scammed by a syndicate- or is it the other way around? Tim & Mayen might be the scammers here.
Maybe to a certain extent, Mayen went over the limitations of Tim kindness for financial support - something that I thought he was comfortable in the first place. I did explain to him to keep his guard up when dealing with needy people in our country.
Tim even tried to sell his story to The Sun but the tabloid did not take up his offer- this Tim mentions in his former blogs. Tim's first blog was very full of lies & slants that when I consulted my lawyer, his advise to me was not to mind it. I even met with the British embassy people to see if they could be of help - their advise was not to mind it since there is nothing I can do about it because my minding it would just feed more fuel to the fire that Tim has created. Since then, I have not minded Tim's malicious emails as advised. According to the British Ambassador to the Philippines when shown a copy of the blog, one with sound mind can easily read thru that the blog is rubbish.
I had no knowledge of the eptopic pregnancy thatMayen had until about an hour or so when she called me for help because she needed an operation. The hospital staff confirmed that Mayen needed an eptopic pregnancy operation to save her from bleeding to death. Later during the day, Tim also requested me to help. I had to rush to the hospital from an important marketing meeting about an hours' drive away. Shouldn't the hospital be the one responsible for the scam if any? I am made to understand that the hospital has answered Tim's allegations. Should'nt Mayen be the one & only person responsible to Tim since it was her who had an affair with him? Why is Tim so convinced that there was no operation? The hospital, my staff & myself sent him confirmations.
I myself witnessed the situation of Mayen in the hospital's operating room where I had to make a P10,000 pesos advance so that the life threatening situation could be resolved by way of an operation. I also made more advances when both Tim & Mayen requested for it. The time & effort I spent on this incident can never be repaid. Now people that don't know me like you think I'm a scammer. How ironic that my samaritan deed is paid back this way.
Tim was so in love with Mayen (I found this silly & immature coz they just met) that if not for the incident about her eptopic pregnancy, they might have gotten together as man & wife - Tim himself confirmed this sometime July when we met in London. The moment I met Tim, he professed his love for Mayen & our country.
Why will Mayen, street wise as she is miss out on a good oppurtunity to be better off if she marries Tim? Mayen herself told me that she was willing to be Tim's wife.
Mayen, being an unsucessful agent had the oppurtunity of her life to get out of the poverty she was in had she played her cards right. Why will she plot an eptopic pregnancy & miss the opportunity? P90,000 pesos is peanuts compared to what Tim had to offer Mayen, a lifetime financial security & maybe some love? Is Tim so naive that he did not realize that money is important to impoverished people? Why will I be involved in a petty crime that might ruin my life?
Unfortunately, Tim is a very suspicious person. How he made his own conclusions I cannot fathom. Tim in my opinion might need some counselling on the matter but it is not my responsibility nor will it make a dent to Tim's mind since he has judged me & others of being evil. I can only pray that Tim will soon realize the wrong he has done.
I am attaching 3 relevant emails that might help you better understand what happened. Tim was in constant touch with myself, Mayen, the hospital, my other agents & even seeked the help of the British embassy during the crises. I don't understand why Tim by cel phone demanded that I & my other agents forever take care of the problem they themselves created? Why did Tim tell us he was coming over then back out & be silent for several days? How can Tim brazenly claim that he sent a wedding for Mayen when we met in London? Being the suspicious person that he is, should'nt he have gotten a receipt from me?
Thank you for the opportunity to give my side. If you have any advise how to stop this slander, please give it."
Reading between the lines - there are two or three fatal admissions.
Further attempts to distance the whole business of the scam from Tierra Maria Estates and himself, by suggesting that the hospital or the girl were to blame.
More importantly, a complete lack of conviction for the alleged truth of the incident. Why would he allude to even the possibility of a scam if he was so certain of the truth - if he actually was present in the operating room of the hospital?
He also openly boasts about his links with the British Embassy in Manila - the "people" he met there - perhaps Carlos Tampinco? I very much doubt that he has the private ear of the Ambassador himself - and I also doubt that the Ambassador would have been so dismissive of my suspicions - especially in the light of all the evidence.
A libel case has often been quoted as a feeble method for the scammers to attain my silence - however we must question the authenticity of the remarks, allegedly made by the British Ambassador to Sir Francis Jalbuena - which if they are not true will constitute a genuine claim for libel - either from myself or from the British Ambassador. I am informed by my barrister that this would be termed innuendo - a specific form of libel that damages a person's reputation.
But here I must remain silent - the Foreign Office are now dealing with this matter - but I am surprised that I am the one to be told that I need counselling - by a man who clearly seems bent on his own destruction.
We have a saying over here - "A man who represents himself in court, has a fool for a client" - I see the wisdom in that now.
I succumbed to a webcam chat with Mayen 12th January - most of it conducted through headphones - one of the few times we were actually talking to each other. She made pointed enquiries as to my connections with the British Embassy in Manila - my friends there?
At times she swore at me and was openly obusive - although, of course, this was "off the record" - being a voice to voice chat.
She also struggled in an attempt to show me photos on her cellphone - including one, allegedly taken by her sister, of Mayen in the hospital - her attempt was unsuccessful because of the glare shining onto her phone - but decidedly too late in the day to start bringing in evidence like this. How casually the hospital photograph appeared amongst all those she was showing me - including one - although not clear at all, I could make out Mayen standing there in nothing but a pair of pink panties - arms by her side - an attempt no doubt, to seduce me back into her world.
These photographs, decidedly odd to produce them now - if they were "taken at the time" - as proof - why weren't they shown to me at the time, as proof - it might have made a big difference? Despite this glaring oddity, Noemi proceeds to display them in the text accompanying her propaganda interview with Mayen.
Perhaps they were starting to hear rumblings from the investigation by the Foreign Office.
We received nothing directly from Chin-Chin or her manager - they were complicit - part of the conspiracy of silence.
The forum attached to her video was removed.
Another voice entered the discussion, this time on the forum attached to one of my videos at Veoh - BravePuso - who condemned my writings as being racist - branding me as a western pervert - picking up young Filipinas on the Internet. When pushed, by Jim to answer her obvious excess of interest in this forum topic, she (for it was a she - we could tell - possibly none other than Mabs in another disguise) replied that she was defending the Philippines in general - seeing that the tags I had attached to my writings and videos linked Philippines with scam.
Amidst the general smokescreen of her comments - generally distracting from the specific details of this particular scam - Jim was able to get stark revelations about the contempt that she seemed to harbor towards westerners.
BravePuso wrote 17/01/08
"Holy smokes and you hypocritical westerners call yourself noble and uncorrupt! That is pure BS! Which area in the world created Hitler, Stalin, Napoleon! Which area of the world is corrupting and destroying the so called "paradise" of the tropics... Your corruption is deeper than monetary, it is ethical, geographical, and hypocritical... Look at your empire and see the corruption you created. Yup, the third world nations have become prostitutes to fat white monkeys!"
I had got myself tangled up in this net of contempt - their justification for scamming western men - a contempt that we were to encounter again and again - that went a long way in helping me to understand the background - against which the whole of this drama had unfolded.
Tierra Maria posted long diatribes on YouTube and Veoh - insisting on the legitimacy of the firm and denying any wrong doing - repeating the initial circumstances - postulating that they were all true - that Mayen had indeed become pregnant - that I was the rogue, the villain, for deserting her in her hour of need.
Meanwhile - Delfin777 from Mexico - who we now referred to as Fermin - wrote to me saying that he was about to go to the Philippines for a holiday - January 15th - until early February. Vague reasons were hinted at - to try and track down the girl that had scammed him - to confront Chin-Chin with the photographs and ask for an explanation about her involvement with Tierra Maria Estates - now that she had been told of the other activities that went on there. He said that he had another friend there in Manila - and they would tour the 100 islands.
Another strange coincidence? Or, more likely - we thought - another stooge. I traced the UK IP address that was getting so many reads of my emails to him - one was up to 30 reads. It turned out to be my own IP address. His was the only email to behave like this out of all I had sent from Bigstring. We deduced that some sort of proxy software, concealing the real IP address and replacing it with one that appeared to be in Mexico was causing some strange artifacts - bouncing back to my IP address as another read.
More red dye was needed.
He had written to me, telling me that he had registered with the Mexican Embassy in Manila - he asked me if there were any innoculations he should have before his visit.
So I replied, wishing him bon voyage - that I had only bothered with Anti-Malaria tablets - but wished I had bothered with condoms. He should do the same - not only to prevent getting scammed in the way I had been, but to protect him against Herpes. I hinted that I had more to tell him about that last subject. I padded it out with a few more questions about his scamming experience.
So how was Mayen going to talk herself out of this situation now, insisting that she had always loved me?
How was anyone going to communicate with me anyway - the only possible route was offline messages left on Yahoo Messenger?
She had Herpes - she knew that she had it - the lotion - you don't have Herpes and not know it.
To pull off the scam, it was important that I did not use a contraceptive, hence her reply to me when I asked her about the subject.
How would she explain the Herpes alongside her sexual innocence?
Another checkmate situation for them.
I received a very terse email from Fermin (we are sure it was written hastily by Sir Francis.)
Whereas all previous emails from Fermin had been noticeably warm - signing off with "Big hugs" & "God bless" - this was stark in comparison.
Later on I received from Fermin in two emails, what could only be seen as cryptic - but nevertheless, obviously cruel threats.
I carried on making short videos - posting them wherever I could find - seven videos in total - all showing up nicely in Google searches for Tierra Maria Estates - one of them, as credits to all the videos - listing all the names of those people involved - the cast in order of appearance.
We realised that it was time to withdraw from all dialogue. They had been given more than enough chances to make ammends - but simply continued with their wriggling, evasive and defensive attitudes. We were not going to be drawn into any public displays of "locking antlers" as Jim called it.
So all comment features on blogs and videos were emptied and removed - all email accounts had them blocked out.
One more offline message came through from Mayen 26th January.
mayen (1/26/2008): timmy are you there? timmy are you there? or still sleeping timmy i have e mail for you..
(2:05:42 AM): i have to go bye
I awoke today - 28th January 2008 - over nine months since it all began. I had to put it all into perspective somehow - seen from the point of view of the scammers I was no more than another trick - and now a big nuisance. They were left with a mess to clear up - an internet saturated with incriminating writing and videos of their failed scamming attempt. Business would surely be affected - and they had no means of getting to me any more.
In this perspective - Mayen and I were no more than a bubble - a flimsy sphere created entirely out of my own emotions - containing nothing at all - that bubble has now burst.
When that happens - what is left - is nothing - absolutely nothing.
But our recent encounter with strangers online in conjunction with Mayen reappearing - there to mop up the pieces - sort of a "Good-cop - Bad-cop" strategy - was about to reveal a whole new dimension.
In February 2008, the third return of the Herpes symptoms - and me to the clinic occurred. This time - the tests brought a confirmation.
Wednesday 27th February
I decided to revisit today some of the text files I had saved - from chats, messages on DIA - right from the very first day.
I smelled again the vapours rising from the crucible of my past - love lost, love never found.
These misty phantoms had created for me an ideal lover.
Somehow, the memory of how I perceived Mayen at these times was locked into the words - I could feel again the fire in my heart and was aware again of the enormous challenge the relationship posed for me - to extricate myself from my situation here in the UK - the marriage and selling the house - but knowing that my passion for Mayen would have carried me through. I sensed again the tension underneath my feet at those times - walking the tightrope between desire and liberty.
To me - I cannot imagine for one moment the Mayen that I thought I knew then doing the things I have since discovered.
A puzzle - that is resolved by time.
I started off - unknowing - naive - yet looking back, the base-line of her behaviour has never changed.
I have always seen the invitation of love - the very same mask that has since been found to conceal another motive, entirely at odds with love.
As time went on I gained more insight into both Mayen & the Philippines - a natural, unstoppable process of learning - but a process that was severely hindered by all kinds of deceit.
I see very clearly now that I was in a dream, an illusion - fueled and coloured by my hopes - my own wish fulfillment.
My dilemma through all of this has been reconciling the one image alongside the alternative.
Inner turmoil and confusion being the result - when quite simply - time itself was teaching me - educating me - filling in more and more of the blanks.
It must be true to say that I know Mayen and the Philippines far more accurately now than I did on the first day of our encounter - April 14th 2007.
It would be contrary to the laws of being if it were otherwise.
Why had it gone on for so long?
It is clear now that I had created two knots, two paradoxical situations - and neither of them had any possible resolution.
Firstly - I had elevated the relationship with Mayen to such a lofty height - imbued it with the significance of the miraculous - that I had infinite headroom for denial - to excuse the obvious signs. Because of my hopes and my feelings for Mayen - I was striving for a resolution - in human terms - a face to face acceptance of the truth - so that come what may, we would find ourselves standing on common ground once more. That explains my continuation - my constant reaching out.
Secondly - because I hadn't a clue how to handle the situation, I chose to use the blog as a form of leverage, which forced their continued involvement - hopefully up to the point where the resolution would come. But because of the nature of this pressure - it simply ensured that they dug their heels in even more - using Mayen to deny my accusations & keep up the pretense of love - putting any hope of a truthful resolution between us confusingly and permanently out of reach.
Earlier in February I had noticed that in order to counter the volume of my appearances in the search engines, Tierra Maria Estates were posting more and more little bits and pieces - advertising write ups - links to their own website.
Following a trail from one of these I discovered a website called Filipina Images.
It was part of a growing network of websites and blogs that were linked together for a tactical assault on the search engines - a technique called "Google Bombing."
The idea was to tip the balance for the search term Filipina, away from the dominating multitude of Mail-order bride sites, pen-pal, dating sites or worse still that were lowering the perception of the Filipina in the public eye. An extremely worthy and successful effort.
Suitably attracted by this noble activity, after a week or so of abstinence from any posting myself, I decided to write a piece for Filipina Images - hoping for some informed commentary.
The piece was accepted and published on the site - although my original title was changed - and a little editorial note was prefixed by the site author Noemi Dado.
CHECK THE DIALOGUE HERE.
I was really optimistic about finding some positive response to my blog at last.
I received a notification from the site that a comment had been left and upon reading it was immediately struck by a strange haunted feeling - somehow, the coincidences contained in this comment were too unreal. Further comments appeared - at first showing tinges of sympathy - but soon tapering off into opinions that assured me that the occurrences in my blog could not be true. This was where I first encountered Jepoy, but he has since been scattering his foul and bigoted insurection against my story far and wide, hiding behind various other names & aliases.
Each day - more of the same - how can so many uninvolved people arrive at the same conclusion from my words?
Part of the answer to that riddle came when I noticed that, unusually, on Noemi's site, the notification emails quoted the IP address of the comment's author. Having been keeping records of these details, a quick comparison revealed the IP address of the first comment, allegedly from Noemi, to be from the same IP address used by Sir Francis to read tracked emails we had previously sent to him. We have worked out the odds for this happening, even according to their own excuses, would be 16,065 to 1 against it happening at all - let alone that this remarkable coincidence had happened once before, in August 2007 - with a reply from one of Sir Francis's business associates.
Mayen had made her last webcam appearance on Valentine's day - looking stunning - wearing makeup for the first time ever - sporting a new hair style - the "curly hair" - now straightened and thinned - one can make cynical guesses as to why.
This was the second arm of the pincer movement - again, working in tandem with what had now become open hostility from the forums - it was an arm that needed to be snapped off immediately.
I changed my email address - my YM ID - there was now no way through to me - apart from the online activity.
As soon as this became evident - all manner of bloggers - Filipinos scattered around the world - who were obviously being mobilised specifically, started to join in with their own little SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) campaign to completely discredit me, calling me racist - psychotic, paranoid and a liar. Even bulletin boards and forums that are "allegedly" there to help people report scams were blocking me or joining in with the hostility. It really is one big underground network - they've got it sewn up - from all corners.
This culminated in April with the production and displaying of a video - an hour long interview with Mayen (see links to - RESPONSE TO LOVE, LIES & VIDEOTAPE, SOS & COVER UP below.)
Throughout all of this Tierra Maria Estates themselves remained absolutely silent - as usual - leaving their dirty work to be done by others.
I had unfortunately come across the lowest of the low - humanity's dregs - these people completely destroying the reputation of the Philippines, publicly, online.
I have always been insistent that this was not a racist campaign - far from it - but the minority of people who I had originally thought were involved has expanded enormously.
More and more forums and blogs were erupting like a rash of boils introducing us to a variety of unsavory commentators - and juvenile psychological tactics - employing the very same emotionally twisting, mind bending methods, so typical of scammers - and by now, so familiar too.
Still - it only went to prove the measure of disruption that our online presence was causing - the commentators are not worth mentioning individually, but I remember seeing a statement - an email from Sir Francis - published on The Queen of Hearts website & Jepoy's website - very similar in tone (except much more hostile, as it was obviously meant for my eyes only) to the Dear John letter written to John Goodwin - but it was withdrawn after only a couple of days.
So - he's eventually come out of hiding.
The original email referred to was sent by Jepoy (so Jepoy boasts on his website) - one of a pair that he sent to Sir Francis & to the hospital.
I was angry - seething with the lies this response contained - but my hands are now tied and I have had to relinquish my role as bait.
The site called Filam Forum Report that I was lured into (after I decided to get myself banned from The World of Filipinas - worth a read though - this is where I encountered a complete closing of ranks, an unbelievable wall of outright hostility, a nepotistic network of corrupt, soft brained cronies - led by SouthernDon and the likes of multi-chinned ogre, MrkGrismer - chided on, no doubt by his "beautiful" Filipina wife) set up by SouthernDon (Don Pinger - The Queen of Hearts) in an effort to continue their censored and biased attack - is now (in July) gathering dust - proving that it was set up specifically for that purpose.
[Update - as of today 22/07/08 (a few days after the previous paragraph was written) another post has appeared there - the usual overblown, hypocritical, red-necked self-righteousness - that tries to portray SouthernDon as a hero, as a saint to his dwindling army of sycophantic followers - but it proves the spies are out - and reporting back to base.]
On March 23rd 2008 Jepoy thought he would branch out on to his mate's site The Man Blog and stir up more response from there, which illicted uninformed comments from one or two of the members - including "Steel." But as predicted very few of these comments were there just by chance - following a trail through social networking what do we find?
A band called "Lose Your Beer Belly."
"We are Lose Your Beer Belly, a totally awesome blues/rock band who will blow you away.
We are made up of :-
* Julius "Bok" Balagtas - Vocals
* Lauren Dado - Guitars
* Reginald "Perf" Perfecto - Lead Guitars
* Ade Magnaye - Bass [The blog site owner]
* Jake Manlulo - Drums
And thanks to Noemi Dado for the video."
The occidental ambition of Manila's disenchanted youth propping itself up, trying
to convince itself that it had actually "arrived."
They're all connected socially.
"So, huh, yeah - like - those are going to be unbiased comments eh, Jepoy? Gosh!"
Through social networking links it was found that 99% of all the comments were from direct connections with Jepoy.
Subscribing under a variety of usernames, Jepoy (aka mariecruz - posing as a female lawyer) and his entourage tried a similar tactic in September 2008 - planting propaganda links to attract the swarm at a site called AskMeHelpDesk . In another member's thread discussing misgivings about a relationship with a cam-girl, there happened to be a random comment urging readers to heed my warnings, containing a link to here. Well, perhaps it was random - it appears to have been convinced of the story - but it could have been planted there just waiting for me to respond to it - which I refrained from doing. Jepoy responded to this comment with his list of links and his typical attitude .
Of course, as planned, more and more brand new members mysteriously appeared to join in the feeding frenzy in answer to Jepoy's jungle call. But when my responses started to illuminate the truth too much, their only recourse was to "report my posts as inappropriate" - resulting in the thread (that Jepoy himself had hijacked) being closed & all connected comments being removed - except the three of his own comments - the ones containing all the links to the gang's previous propaganda sites. When I reminded the administration that this appeared to be a blatantly partial act, portraying that particular website as being supportive of the dubious activity of scammers & their propaganda machine - commendably, the site administration complied with my requests to have these remaining comments removed.
Thick as thieves . . .
Now - on 11th September, in a chat - Mayen tells me that SirFrancis phoned her up, to inform her that the lawyers were ready with the libel suit. There's more baloney being served up here than in an Italian restaurant.
Here is Sir Francis's statement - posted 3rd March 2008.
Thank you. I’m glad you emailed me & I’m going to forward this email & yours to all who are just as affected as me, Mayen herself (whom I have not been able to get in touch with since about a week after she left the hospital) people as concerned as you about the libelous blogs, people that might be in a position to right the situation & those important to me that have asked for statements.
As you very well said & realize, many have concluded without asking me or someone from Tierra Maria that we are the victims here. I myself feel so betrayed because I personally involved myself in something that did not concern me but acted like a good Samaritan by helping my pleading agent when asked by her to get a needed operation even before the promise from the accuser that he will repay me when he got here Aug. 15, 2008. I will forward to you Cumper’s 1st of many emails he sent me. You be the Judge because the many lies Cumper made to me is not in writing. [How convenient, Sir Francis! So nobody can prove you the biggest liar of them all.]
I will leave this incident to be finally judged by the Lord who I will trust to do the justice & vindication. I must admit that I have sinned when I reacted in unchristian ways several times because of the accusations made. I want to avoid committing further sins like thinking of hiring plumbers siphon back all the dirt he has made back up to his own home ( I think house more appropriate) so he can bathe in it.
Furthermore, I am not in a financial position to hire a London based detective to find out what kind of background Cumper has nor a Lawyer to file libel charges against him. So I guess I’ll just have to follow advise of knowledgeable people who have said that the best way to handle Cumper is to keep quiet & not mind him because by doing so I will just add fire to the smoke (smoke screen of his guilt more appropriate) the unbelievable things & lies he has made.
This is my own personal statement, Tierra Maria was not consulted nor is a part of this which Cumper also tries to associate my actuations & others with. I am working for Tierra Maria purely on commission basis.
Yours truly,
Francis M. Jalbuena
Sole Marketing Agent
Tierra Maria Estates
Ofc. Tel. (+632) 820-6122 / 826-1327
Telefax (+632) 820-1720
Personal website: www.tierramaria.net
This is Cumper’s 1st email after assuring him I was in Mayen’s bedside while she was bleeding & in danger. My 30 minute conversation with Cumper was at my expense. Some of the salient points I made were;
1) You have offered Mayen a marriage & lifetime of financial security, why would anybody in her position try to scam you for a paltry amount & lose your trust.
2) Don’t expect people here to be as proficient as there in London
3) Don’t spoil Mayen with too much monetary dole outs because she belongs to the large group of not too financially well off here & people who all of a sudden gets their hands on large sums of money might find it hard to handle. Cumper had intimated to me that his plans with Mayen was to buy a condo in MM & a farm lot in Tierra Maria. [I don't know where that 2nd idea came from!]
Cumper never came & was unreachable for several days after he sent this email. [I was silent for 2 days only - the day of my flight and the day afterwards. I resumed contact Thursday 16th August 2007 - on Yahoo Messenger.]
FYI
[He then posted a copy of my email.]
Mon, 13 Aug 2007 06:38:55
But of course, nothing remotely official or convincing had arrived in time for my flight - and look at all that has happened since then - they have constantly been on the back-foot - instead of offering, volunteering - they have simply been playing catch-up to my perfectly reasonable requests. Sir Francis can take the trouble to write a statement to protect his public image - but could not be bothered to communicate with me once - in all that has been going on since August 2007 - despite my numerous appeals. It needn't have gone this far - I can assure you all - but that would have meant them either proving to me - beyond any possibility of doubt - that it was all true - or confessing to the scam attempt. Neither of which have happened - and as each month has passed, a clearer picture of how they operate has been revealed.
Mayen's denial that she was any longer in communication with Sir Francis (and from his statement above - a similar denial) was crucial to try and distract me from the real reason for her continued contact with me. Pretending that it was to rescue the relationship - it is obvious that it was to rescue the reputation of the Big Business. The moment I cut off communication with her, activity from the forums increased dramatically - that was now their only way through to me - but still using the only means they had at their disposal - emotional manipulation.
If they had - at any time - material evidence to produce - ie - had the operation been true - they would have produced it long, long ago - to acheive the same result - namely, getting my incriminating blogs removed - but by a much simpler and totally honest method.
Their M.O. gives the game away.
That is their unmistakable footprint.
Click HERE for other postings related to these forums - & see other blog alongside this.
See how Cyber-Bullying tactics are being used in this saga - RIGHT NOW!
Read how one of the chief "protagonists" - BLEW IT!!!
Blogging is reputed to have been introduced to the Philippines when in 1996 a ten year old girl posted the first one online - emulating what she had seen from around the world.
This girl was Lauren Dado - daughter of Noemi.
There is now a vast community of bloggers in the Philippines - some blogging professionally, for money - and their knowledge of the Internet, SEO, html, etc. is second to none - it has caught on in a big, big way.
Reading through the results of this new addiction reveals how seduced they are by the status symbols of Bling, designer fashion and modern technology. Even just to present what is no more than advertising copy for these products seems to mysteriously bestow the illusion of status and success on the writer.
Well, they work hard (some of them) so God bless them. So many of the blogs are almost carbon copies of each other - the three main categories being Bling, Babies and food. All nicely served up on a large bed of gossip and a hero worship for anyone remotely resembling the "famous." Unchecked consumerism at it's most severe.
Many of these bloggers, blogs and forums are interlinked with each other by a variety of means.
Here is just one example of how they use their familiarity with the technology to play their games.
Being new to all this I couldn't understand how these people seemed to be aware of my movements around the Internet - until I finally caught on to the fact that a user's IP address is recorded, & can be stored by any website you visit. Of course finding statistic gathering software is easy once you know what to look for, so I installed it myself in my various blogs.
Fantastic, I thought - now having the ability to track the IP address of visitors, length of stay, the URL that they have arrived from, what pages they read, what they click on to leave, browser type, operating system - a whole wealth of information.
But of course it can be used the other way round.
Let me explain - all of their psychological taunts, insults, digs at my personal life would amount to nothing - if I were never to read them or see what they were doing. It's highly unlikely that I would scour the search engines looking for them, so they have to come up with a way to plant them right under my nose.
Simple - post the web-page that they want me to see - include in it a link to one of my blogs - one with the statistics software tracking the visitors. Click on the link from their new web-page a few times - which takes them to my blog. Of course I see this registered in my software as a visit - and where that visitor came from - it looks interesting - so I investigate by visiting the source URL by clicking the link in my statistics list. Hey presto - I'm taken straight to their new insult or propaganda full of lies. Of course, the link to my blog is removed as soon as its served its purpose of baiting me in. After all, a link to a professional blogger is like gold dust - and these people are in no mood to be generous to me in any way.
Yes - rather fun that photo, but the curious thing is - Reyna Elena was trying to insult me by calling me gay - which is strange, considering that he is bakla, himself - I found it amusing - I work with gay men a great deal in the Theatre and they're generally really pleasant people - there is no stigma attached to it as far as I am concerned. But obviously - Reyna Elena is still suffering from the effects of homophobia - not a content person at all - insulting himself in that way. There have been far nastier photographs I assure you, my severed head in a toilet bowl, my face photo-shopped onto various animals - pigs, monkeys - me in a straight jacket, me with my trousers down, wearing the baggiest of underpants - holding up a sign saying "I am stupid" - quite inventive - it must have taken someone quite a while to do. I have since discovered that it is merely a copy of a photo that was posed by a Nigerian scammer who was being "baited" - one of the taunting conditions he had to comply with in his efforts to get some money.
Here is an example of an obvious attempt at inflaming racial hatred, in a desperate effort to rally others around a distorted and false flag. This is direct from Reyna Elena - my comments in brackets. They seem incapable of admitting for one moment that what I am saying is true, even to the extent that they do not believe my wife knows anything about any of this. Perhaps truth is an alien concept to them.
"Taking cue from the Pinay Scandal, the second SEO campaign I did was to equalize the internet bombardment of this notorious hoax producer, [have you got the slightest piece of evidence to support your theory that it is a hoax? Why would I go to all this trouble for a hoax?] scam inventor and Filipino hater [there, a direct accusation of racism - which is simply not true. I have stressed time and time again that this is all directed purely at the criminals and their supporters - but they are desperate, clutching at straws - because they know that they cannot produce even the smallest piece of material evidence. Besides, remember, most of these people were not even in the Philippines at the time.] Tim Curper of UK a.k.a. Ellumbra. How successful was our SEO campaign? Let’s start by saying that even before I even thought about putting an internet fight with this very sad and lonely single and grumpy old man, he has opened blogs after blogs of everything and anything against the Tierra Maria Estates, the Philippines, the Filipinos and reyna elena readers. [Another attempt at a racist slur - do not believe this evil man.]
Today?
After the 1st campaign that we did, the real story, the truth and nothing but the truth about the scam [Yeah, yeah, yeah - go on then - show me how you can possibly know the truth?] that never happened, the hoax that Tim Curper created in his schizophrenic minds is finally out there. [See where they are going?]
One of these days, we will uncover who you are, your wife and where you live and they will all find out what you are doing against the Filipinos. [This man is very deaf - and very stupid - he is still insisting that it is racist.] This is a very small world after all." [Does that sound like a threat? Uncover who I am - I'm not even hiding - nothing to fear - I am simply telling it, as it is - and people are observing.]
Oh dear - so the biggest threat they think they can wield is to find out where I live and inform my wife of what's been going on, behind her back, so they think. Like the twitching of a phantom limb, long since amputated, it seems impossible for them to see beyond their habitual methods of operation - ie - blackmail. This idea is completely redundant as my wife knows absolutely everything - but it shows how readily they will stoop.
Well, they're quite welcome to that challenge - she'd see them off extremely efficiently - and thinks they're all idiots. But then she says that about me as well.
What's it all coming to - so far away from the original plan?
Still - I've had my fun in return.
Not surprisingly - with the tradition of kinship and their natural propensity for chikka - idle gossip - coupled with the technology of the Internet - stories spread like a bush fire - out of control.
Infected by the original lies - & I suspect by a great amount of influence and persuasion - there is now a rash, of epidemic proportions - of blogs and forum comments. One of the early appearances (hastily removed) was a website run by a certain Filipina Doctor living in Norwich UK - who I have since discovered makes regular broadcasts from the local BBC radio station - often with some of the other members of this gang of bloggers as her guests - including Reyna Elena. They're all as thick as thieves.
I sent her an email while she was on the air one Saturday afternoon and a live message via the studio's own Instant Messenger, requesting that we talk - no reply.
There is even posted up on Noemi's personal website a video interview that Noemi recorded with Mayen - all denouncing my story as a hoax - after all - what else can they do?
But you will notice a complete absence of anything new - no evidence to support their innocence, or to lend credibility to their version of events - nothing, other than what has already been presented, last August - in such a suspicious way - and generally a totally defensive attitude. What could they possibly produce now - that couldn't have been produced in August?
Who would believe it now, anyway?
But does that stop them from trying?
Read on to find out.
A culture clash - what for them is a small, insignificant, every-day event - scamming - that they take for granted - is viewed completely differently in our culture - as a serious abuse.
Maybe they might even think it unjust, that they are caused to suffer like this, by way of retribution.
But the Internet is bringing all these diverse worlds and cultures together - and as the tides meet and intermix - some dangerous whirlpools and undertows are created.
Unfortunately - scamming - the sex tourism industry - puts money onto their streets - and brings money into their shops - it is part of the net of racketeering and organised crime that catches for the country an estimated 10% - 20% of it's gross domestic product. Apathy, corruption & cronyism - in conjunction with some of the country's laws, or lack of laws, seems to guarantee that this income is secure.
But - scammers - beware.
The tide is turning - fast.
A large proportion of the bloggers that I have encountered in this episode have been OFWs, or those whose business or social environment requires them to adopt a certain stance when dealing with "foreigners."
From my communication on other sites I can tell when for some reason or another, a stream abruptly stops. This has happened when in my explorations online I have left comments, being involved in several social blogging networks myself now. Replies to comments and shouts have either abruptly stopped or a stream of communication has never been established at all. Considering the importance of continued communication in developing a blogger's network, I can only presume that my story has met with, in these instances, an attitude of defensiveness.
This is totally understandable.
I know that this defensive bravura is a direct result of the unfortunate, but common complex of inferiority, that seems to reside in the national psyche of the Philippines.
History has been cruel to this beautiful country, to this endearing people, it has left all manner of scars and psychological wounds at a national level, which compound themselves by the way in which the nation is sometimes perceived.
In a brave attempt to protect themselves from further injuries to their national pride, defensiveness appears.
But it is rather short-sighted to destroy any genuine reasons for pride in the same process as trying to defend them, which is precisely what they have been doing by refusing to systematically look at this particular issue with honesty, impartiality and objectivity.
In my experience, apart from one isolated thread, this defensiveness has been completely disconnected from any concern with the truth.
At its most innocent it is purely a knee-jerk protective mechanism, most common amongst those already equipped with an established approach - an attitude adopted habitually when dealing with foreigners and any disparaging remarks made about their beloved country.
A great many of these are OFWs and this accounts for the vociferous and energetic displays of defensive propaganda encountered from these quarters.
They are practiced at this sort of denial - distanced far enough from their homeland to convincingly voice a loyalty, tinged no doubt with a strong bias of nostalgia.
Contrasting with the mute response from people still living in the Philippines, too close to the embarrassing truth of the matter, not so practiced at the art of flag waving, they choose to remove themselves from inclusion in any discussions.
They cannot muster up adequate self deceit to pretend and choose not to attempt a fresh, impartial rationality - so they simply disappear, perhaps in shame or fear, but certainly in silence.
But at its most sinister, this is an organised, purposeful deception. I know for a fact that emails have been distributed amongst this network - resulting, from early July, in massive spikes in readership of my blog.
Quite what the purpose of this is - I have no idea at all - maybe some kind of distraction?
It coincided with the time that the Medical Centre Paranaque's website disappeared online - the domain name was waiting to be renewed.Virtually all visitors arriving during these spikes came either from a link contained in an email, or from almost concealed links in postings set up specifically by some of them (Chuvaness et al.)
Here is the other Chuvaness (Marlin Ada) posing with Reyna Elena - obviously best buddies.
So often I have come across various attempts at defining the national characteristics of the Filipino.
Almost all of them includes a concept - "Hiya" - their loathing of feeling shame or loss of face.
In the circumstances I have encountered - this also helps to explain the constant denial - unfortunately, it seems, the fearful shame of being exposed as a liar - is greater than the shame of actually telling lies, or attempting a devious emotional scam.
A paragraph in Margaret Davis book "For The Love of My Son" illustrates this perfectly.
She is saying her last farewell to her son at the funeral parlour - with her is his Filipina wife, Evelyn, who is later convicted of planning her son Stephen's murder.
Margaret has her suspicions already . . .
QUOTE - Steven was laid on a bare metal trolley, feet facing the oven. He was still wearing the same suit he was dressed in when we saw him last. I undid the laces on one of his shoes and motioned to Evelyn to do the same. Shaking off my fear, I cupped his head in my hands, and kissed his dear cold face goodbye . . .
. . . then I reached out for Evelyn - she was pale, and crying for the first time. She is only small, is Evelyn, and - my heart bursting with grief, rage and something close to insanity - I pushed her forward onto Steven's body, forcing her arms around him and pinning her there with my own body, I could feel the strength leaving her, and I was suddenly afraid she would faint.
"Swear to me you had nothing to do with this," I whispered.
"I swear, Ma'am, I swear on my kids' life and my mother's life. I love Stayban, I love my husband, I am so sad, Ma'am."
With that she sank to the floor, sobbing. I felt a pang of pity for this ignorant girl. How I wished I could see into her heart. What was the real truth? Was she still dissembling, even here - in front of her dead husband? I desperately wanted to believe she was innocent. - UNQUOTE
Another masterpiece for international relationships.
Perhaps Response to Love, Lies & Videotape from April (be sure to watch the video first) will give you an idea of the absurdity that is currently taking place online.
If I were an honest and impartial interviewer, determined to get to the truth, I would want to ensure that I was doing the correct thing, ethically - I would check my facts. Considering that the most conclusive proof in all of this, surrounded as it has been by fake this, suspicious that - considering that here I have the girl involved in the centre of events - I would discretely & privately insist on seeing the scar that she alleges to have from the operation, before commencing the interview - simply to consolidate and reinforce my knowledge that I was doing the right thing.
Curiously and worryingly - this never happens - Noemi never once refers to seeing the scar for herself - again such an obvious thing to do.
I cannot understand why my possession of the video of the fake scar has been so pointedly questioned by the scammers - after all - I had already posted an edited minute's worth of it all over the Internet - it surely stands to reason that I have the important sections also?
The video footage I had in total contained enough information for us to draw a further confession from Mayen about her lies - there was enough detail to identify that it was exactly the same cafe in Manila as the footage allegedly from Sogod - so maybe you question why I did not reveal the whole video - damning as it is?
I can understand why they wanted to see it so urgently - but any attempt to coerce the video out of my hands was always going to be futile - because had I shown it to them, the scar so obviously a fake - despite the fact that I was often willing to forgive anything, in the early days - my continuation would have certainly been questioned - and my usefulness in drawing any further information would have ceased.
But more importantly - it would have given them something to copy - to produce fake photographs - something that is certainly not beyond them - as you will see.
Another post from later on in April . . . COVER UP.
Then I gave them the bottom line - which helped clarify things for me . . . QUESTIONS.
By early May - I was losing the battle online - their little SEO campaign started to push me off page one of google.
But now it's July - I'm still there - I can still be found - still getting an occasional dribble of half hearted attempts to "psyche me out" - looking for chinks in my armour.
One thing is clear - all the energy and activity from everyone who was not involved directly in the original events of last August - brings the silence of those parties who were involved - and have been publicly named as such - into extreme relief, high contrast.
It is strange - such a hive of activity on one side - and absolutely zero on the other.
It's almost as if - well - speculation for another day, perhaps.
I have to admit that the UK agencies whom I contacted early on in this saga - were right all along - as their advice to me was, quite simply - "The moment money is involved - it's a scam."But I thank them for their support and their encouragement and for their involvement of other UK authorities.
Because my heart was involved, I set off on the trail of proof and chose not to listen to them - my goodness, just look at what has happened since. Remember it is all one thing or the other - there are no "in betweens" or half measures - I am convinced that the evidence, the trend that has been revealed, points conclusively in one direction only.
If you missed the link from the title page - here is how, two years exactly from the date of the phone calls from "the hospital" - conclusive proof finally arrived.
Love is not exclusive,
Love dwells within,
Love does not only answer to one name,
Love is who we are and want to be
And seeps like the air we breath
Between all the cracks and crevices
Of our days,
Our worlds,
For we each have a world
Of our own
With a population of one.
There are as many images of God
As there are different worlds,
But there is always
And there can only ever be
One truth.
Sometimes we cry out
To be shown that truth,
But it can only come to us
In our own way,
A way our world will recognise.
Sometimes it is a whisper,
Sometimes a scream,
Often just a silent knowing
Suddenly filling
That aching void,
The calm and peace
Of truth restored.
Longing is not the same as love,
Longing is a bridge
That true love must cross.
To meet at the centre,
Each leaving the safety
Of their own world
To risk that journey.
One does not lure another
Over to the opposite side.
Click the flags to read about all the alarm bells.