by AVIGAIL M. OLARTE

WHEN RAJ Singh smiles, you will want to pay him, even if you don’t owe him money. The polite 28-year-old Indian knows his way with Filipinos, especially with those he has to deal with in his money-lending business, an informal financing scheme called “5-6” that Indians in the Philippines are known for.

	INDIAN money-lenders like Raj Singh are increasingly becoming wary of Filipino hold-uppers. [photo by Avigail Olarte]

Left with relatives in India, where he was born, Singh’s parents asked him to join them in the Philippines when he was 15 years old. They wanted his help in their 5-6 business, in which every P5 borrowed means a payback of P6 over a period of one week. He has since been touring the streets of Caloocan City to lend money and collect daily dues from clients, from eight in the morning to five in the afternoon.

Singh says business has been good, echoing many other Indians in his line of work. Yet he is now thinking of leaving the Philippines after a spate of attacks against Indians in the last two years, attacks that have led to deaths in several cases and have prompted the Indian government to express concern and ask Philippine authorities for help.

News of the attacks have also reached Indian communities in other countries, where these have not only led to statements of concern, but also raised tensions between Indian and Filipino expatriates. In Vancouver, Canada, one Filipino was so alarmed at the terse exchanges between the two groups in a cyberforum that she asked which areas she should avoid “if I don’t want to be killed by Indians?”

For sure, such reactions can be traced largely to inaccurate reports, such as one by an Indian newspaper that said as much as 100 Indians were killed in the Philippines in the past five years. Yet while India’s Ministry of External Affairs says that 19 Indians have been killed in this country in the last two years, that figure is a sharp increase from previous years. Official statistics from India also indicate that in 2006 alone, about a dozen Indians were killed in the Philippines — the highest number of Indian fatalities that year outside of their home country, higher even than those posted in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, and India’s perennial rival, Pakistan.

N.S. Kalsi, Commissioner of Non-Resident Indians Affairs in Punjab, where many Indians in the Philippines hail from, has even written to the deputy commissioners of all the districts in the northern Indian province, advising them to dissuade people from migrating to this country. “The attacks on our community in the Philippines is a matter of concern for us and our advice to all Indians is to don’t migrate to the Philippines, at least (until) the situation improves there,” he said in a recent phone interview.

ATTACKS ON THE RISE
The Philippine National Police (PNP) admits its records are inaccurate and thus do not match those of the Indian authorities. Still, police records and news reports strongly indicate that the attacks against Indians are indeed on the rise, and range from holdups to kidnapping to outright ambushes, and occur even outside of Metro Manila. Police records alone show that in 2005, there were only three crimes against Indians, but the figure shot up to 13 in 2006. From January to June 2007, the PNP had already recorded eight cases with Indians as victims.

Local authorities agree with some Indian nationals that the killings especially may have been masterminded by fellow Indians against business rivals. The Indian government itself says that some Indians have joined the ranks of Chinese and Filipinos involved in kidnapping and extortion, which may help explain the sudden spike in the cases of ambushes and abductions of Indians. But no one doubts that Filipinos have been the perpetrators in several of the attacks.

	BHAGWANT Rai Bansal convenes the board of Khalsa Diwan Inc., the oldest and largest Indian organization in the Philippines. [photo by Avgail Olarte]

“Many families are being destroyed,” says Bhagwant Rai Bansal, president of Khalsa Diwan Inc., the oldest and largest Indian organization in the Philippines. Khalsa Diwan's members have been victims both of holdups and ambushes.

Those into 5-6 are the usual victims, and the Indians interviewed for this story themselves say they are easy targets. One can spot them on any crowded street or market, riding motorcycles and with backpacks, sometimes carrying umbrellas, towels, and home appliances that they sell. Worse, their daily schedule is predictable.

Just two weeks ago, a 50-year-old Indian moneylender was attacked in Raj Singh’s neighborhood. Two Filipinos approached the Indian in broad daylight, drew a gun, and announced a holdup. One of the men then tried to grab his cell phone while the other concentrated on his backpack while kicking him. The moneylender was able to run even as one of the men fired the gun at him. The gunman missed and fled, but his accomplice was pounced upon by local residents, who splashed hot water on his back.

In an earlier incident, also in Caloocan, 40-year-old Khulwinder Singh narrowly escaped death when he was shot by two unidentified Filipinos who tried to grab his bag. He was in intensive care for over a week.

Police records show similar incidents have been occurring in Zambales, Bulacan, and Nueva Ecija. There have also been kidnappings of Indians, with ransoms ranging from P60,000 to P200,000; in one case in Isabela, the ransom even reached P2 million. According to the police, the number of kidnapping cases in the first four months of 2006 rose by 70 percent compared with the same period in 2005. Most of the abductions, it said, were of Indians involved in moneylending.

Then there are the assassinations, which police suspect are being done mostly by a particular group of Indians against business competitors. Some members of the Indian community here say about seven separate ambushes attributed to the group resulted in six dead victims. The seventh target, who survived, is now receiving death threats.