Tondo, Manila, Wednesday, 16 January 1946
A year ago Nicasio "Asiong" Salonga had run his gang of street hoodlums out of a back alley; now he sat in a well-appointed office off the Plaza Moriones where he no longer needed to participate in day-to-day street violence. His ‘marriage of convenience’ with the Action Service, which had helped to break the stranglehold of the Chinese triads on Manila’s crime, had allowed him – and certain others – to grasp the illicit wealth that had previously flowed to Four Seas Gang and their ilk. He now wore tailor-made suits rather than a singlet; he smoked fine cigars in preference to rolling his own cigarettes; he sported the credentials of a legitimate businessman while his lieutenants and henchmen did the dirty work of enforcing the law of Salonga’s personal jungle – the slums of Tondo and other nearby parts of Manila.
His gang had absorbed many of the city’s smaller criminal organizations; but others had done so as well – and now Manila’s underworld was engaged in a struggle for dominance – one which often turned violent. To Salonga, this seemed wasteful. In his mind there formed the idea of forming one syndicate of crime that would delineate territories, lines of business, and rules to live or die by. Of course, he, Salonga, would run the syndicate…
Mission Nuestra Senora de los Islas, Tapiantana Island, Friday, 18 January 1946
Brother Francis stood at the porch of the newly-finished stone church and looked out across the mission compound where stood the lodgings of the brothers, the school for the children of the island, the infirmary, and the storehouses. Near the outer wall of the compound was the herb garden, and beyond the walls the small fields used to grow new crops to educate the Bajao in modern agriculture. He gave thanks for the progress he and his fellow friars had been able to make; despite some hold-outs, most of the islanders now attended church and shunned their former ways. Some of the older boys of the villages had learned enough to be sent to Zamboanga for further studies. Peace reigned, under the watchful eye of the Philippine Navy. The Cabo Bojeador visited once a month, bringing her medical specialists and supplies for the villages and for the mission.
He knew that elsewhere that his brother monks faced far greater difficulties in their mission to convert the Suluk; but this was his assignment, and he was truly thankful for the progress made. In time, it would be permanent.