Boy Boso Dot Com Part 1

Jiraiya the Pervert (source: Tumbler.com)

“When I already had turned the faucet on outside our house, I did not close the door immediately; instead, I peeked through the door screen and I saw Gilbert and his male friend. Gilbert’s male friend, whom I recognized as Matias

, because I’ve seen him being involved in several quarrels in the past, went straight to the house beside ours. I saw Gilbert waving a thumbs-up sign towards his friend. I went back to the bathroom, turned off the lights and pretended that I was already taking a shower by spilling water on the bathroom floor using a bucket. Then I noticed that the ruler at the right side of the plywood covering the partially opened window had gradually been removed. I went out again and saw the two of them as if they were talking. I went back to the bathroom, turned the lights on and I saw the ruler moving again. Then I turned the lights off, peeked through the screen door and saw them walking away.”

POSO, a traditional "faucet" in the Philippines.
inset: close up photo of water regulator.

I failed to remember what my dear friend told me verbatim, but to cut the story short, she told me that she became a victim of “Boy Boso”, last Saturday morning (August 18) at around four AM.

By the way, we’re living in a house with six rooms—four on the second floor and two at the ground floor. This is a typical “boarding house” setting in Metro Manila where there are rooms rented by different tenants and there’s a bathroom and a living room/kitchen that everybody could use. Outside the house, there's an old-fashioned pump or "poso", our main source of water (NAWASA naman eh). Unlike the others, our "poso" is different. We did not have to use our muscles to pump water; we just have to turn the regulator on and off, and we can move its neck.

bathroom window covered with plywood with ruler (blue)

Inside the bathroom, there’s a window which serves as exhaust system. Its left side was damaged and it couldn’t be closed fully anymore. Because of that, one could conclude that “Peeping Toms” or “Boy Boso” as we call that person, take advantage of that situation to take a look at the bodies and activities of the people who are using the comfort room, and males are included.

In the past, we had three female board mates who complained that they had seen the upper part of a man’s head (hair, eyebrows and eyes) by the window of our comfort room. I myself had also smelled cigarettes by the window while taking a shower at three AM a few times before, which had been stopped since my husband, started waking up at the same time as mine. The landlady remedied the situation by covering the part which couldn’t be closed with plywood and twelve-inch ruler. The ruler serves as bait for someone who’d still insist to peek since it is the only one that could be removed.

After talking to my friend last Sunday about the said event, I asked her whether she wanted to report it to the police or barangay and she agreed. Not wanting to make the situation worse, she told me that she wanted to file a complaint, but she didn’t want to inform her husband, an enlisted member of the Philippine Air Force who has been away for several days searching for Secretary Robredo’s body, about what happened. She was worried because her husband might do something against the culprits. Of course, who’s in a good state of mind would be happy if somebody did something bad towards his wife? Of course, if I were on her situation, I would also be afraid of what my husband might do out of anger. However, I refused. I encouraged her to tell her husband what happened because sooner or later, her husband will eventually know.

My husband told me that he and Gilbert had a chat while he was repairing our landlady’s desktop computer last Saturday afternoon. He told me that Gilbert suddenly opened a conversation about his friend, Matias. Based on Gilbert’s account, whenever Matias is drunken, he had an urge to peek at someone’s window, or more specifically, our bathroom window and that Saturday, at around four o’clock in the morning, he was with Matias and he had almost punched his friend’s face because, quoting his own words, “AYAW NIYANG MAGPAAWAT KASI LASING NA ”. Coincidentally, the time that he mentioned (4 AM) was the same time when the “paninilip” incident took place as per my friend’s account.

We asked my godmother, who is the current Barangay Treasurer, for help. She, in turn, accompanied us to the office of the Barangay Captain to file a complaint. For public awareness, I decided to write their full names and I will post their pictures once I got theirs. The full name of “Boy Boso” is Matias Serrano III. We don’t know anything about this person, except being married to a woman whom we don’t personally know, but we frequently see him around our neighborhood. The Barangay Captain informed us that this person had just been hospitalized due to gunshot from an incident which he was involved in and he is now residing in Cavite with his wife. His parents and siblings are still residing in Malibay, Pasay City near the house where we are currently living. Meanwhile, his accomplice’s complete name is Gilbert Igana Tolentino, our landlady’s nephew.  In addition, his father is one of the Kagawads of our barangay.  These two are childhood friends who are often involved into different troubles and the Barangay Captain even told us that these two, as well as their other friends had been complained by different people in the past. The recent complaint was filed by a gay whom they had beaten. They were also complained because sometimes, they were awake and drinking even at night. He also told us that these young fellows have been causing him headache, and in the previous cases where they were involved in, they never attend hearings so he promised that he would issue “certificate to file action” so that my friend could file a case against them once this had not been settled.

My friend also informed our landlady about what her nephew had been involved in. She also stressed that, big crimes usually start from petty ones. If they were not able to stop Gilbert he would just repeat what he did in the future. Although he was just an accomplice, that act showed that he somehow agreed with his friend’s lustful activity. Who knows what he might do in the future? The latter promised that she and the rest of her relatives will do their best to let Gilbert stay away from us so my friend’s husband will not see him once he went home. She also promised us to fix the bathroom window.

The barangay hearing of this case would be scheduled on Tuesday at six PM. My husband and I promised to be there and we will see how Gilbert would match what he told my husband with my friend’s statements.