All language subtitles for Asias Underworld s01e01 Assassins.eng

Merciless. Ruthless. A gun for hire.

For a reasonable price,

these men solve problems quickly
and conclusively,

in the only way they know how.

Every year,
the Philippine National Police...

...report an average of more than 6,000
incidents of murder and homicide.

Of these slayings, an unknown number...

...are believed to be carried out
by paid gunmen,

hired to perform a lethal task.

From the criminal underbelly of Manila,
they wreak their mayhem,

challenged only by those who are willing
to stare death in the face.

But these are no ordinary gunmen.

These are professional assassins,

operating as an organized network.

They are among the most feared men
in the Philippines.

Assassins are a specialized breed
of criminal...

...that can be found
anywhere in the world.

But in the Southeast Asian
nation of the Philippines,

gun-for-hire killers
come straight from the slums.

As a new recruit
to the assassin's network,

Dennis was required
to prove himself worthy.

If he was to become
a professional assassin,

killing a complete stranger
should be second nature.

Dennis was given a firearm...

...and asked to execute a man
who had been abducted by his recruiters.

Assassins are very easy to come by.

Many people have been killed.

Prominent as well
as non-prominent people...

...because they had personal enemies.

Even political enemies.

Assassinations,
as I have written in my columns,

has become an industry.

July 3rd, 2008.

A group of rap artists
have finished a recording session.

As they leave their recording studio,
gunmen open fire,

spraying the rappers with bullets.

Two members of the group are killed.

The shooting is a massive shock
to the community.

The group, known as Hukbalahap,

became an overnight music sensation...

...following an online hit
called "Life of a Gangster."

The young rappers
had become local heroes,

known for lyrics that resonated
with the Filipino youth...

...who struggle everyday
in the Manila slums.

Following their rise to fame,

the rappers
received a series of death threats,

which they believe came
from jealous rivals.

On July 3rd 2008,

the seemingly harmless threats
became a reality.

A team of masked hit-men
opened fire on the five-man group.

Three members were shot
and immediately taken to hospital.

Two of the band members,
rappers, MJ and Dino...

...were killed in the gunfire.

To the surviving members of Hukbalahap,

the attack bore the mark
of professional assassins...

...hired from the slums by a rival gang.

Where money is scarce, life is cheap.

To hire the service's
of a professional killer...

...can cost as much as 20,000 US dollars
for a high profile target,

or as little as 120 dollars
for a hit on an average man.

You can get an assassin
for as low as five thousand pesos...

...and as high as a million
or half a million pesos.

In a country
where more than 40 million people...

...live on less than two dollars per day,

...sheer desperation
can lead to a life of crime.

And for some,
on the brink of abject poverty,

becoming an assassin
is nothing more than a paying job.

Maybe there is a real assassination group.

And if I back out and they will come out
to their headlines says,

"He got scared about the assassins."

On August 21st, 1983,

Ninoy Aquino, the leader
of the opposition party...

...and would-be president,

is shot dead on the tarmac
of Manila's international airport...

...just seconds
after leaving the airplane.

People with enemies.

Personal.

Political.

Politicians are good targets.

It's as simple as that.

Philippine history of course
is can be said a history of great people,

the Filipino people,

but the Philippine history
is also history of, you know...

...treachery, conspiracies,
political killings, and assassinations.

Since before the Spaniards arrived,

violence has been tied
to Philippine politics.

The murder of Ninoy Aquino.

An outspoken opponent
of the Marcos dictatorship...

...remains one of the most infamous
assassinations in modern history.

You have to be very ready
with your hand camera...

...because this action can become
very fast.

In a matter of what, three, four minutes
it could be all over you.

And I may not be able
to talk to you again after this.

Ninoy Aquino has long been dead...

He was killed as he set foot
on the airport tarmac.

In my opinion, they got the wrong guys.

The soldiers...

Only one guy knew about
the assassination plot.

The others were innocent.

I interviewed them.

Only time will make the assassination
of Ninoy Aquino justice...

...and the assassins
or the masterminds known...

...but not now.

Many of the assassinations...

...can be classified as, one, probably
they were politically motivated,

probably they wanted
to take someone from power...

...or they want to maintain their power,
that's why they kill.

Being a politician is a risky business,
especially during election campaigns.

Avelino Sonny Razon
is a retired police chief...

...who is running for mayor of Manila.

For him, death threats
have become a part of everyday life.

If elected, Razon has vowed...

...to make the war against crime
a top priority.

And with significant influence
in law enforcement circles,

this makes him a likely target
for assassination.

But politicians can only do so much
to combat the gun-for-hire problem.

Eventually the fight
has to be taken to the streets...

...by law enforcement agents...

...who are not afraid
of the possible repercussions.

Wally Sombero
is a multi-awarded police colonel...

...whose 27-year career
included first-hand experience...

...hunting assassins.

Despite stepping down
from the force years ago,

Sombero still has a bounty on his head.

Sombero survived the attack.

Thanks in large part to his understanding
of the assassins' modus operandi.

The gunmen were never caught,
as is often the case.

But the trigger-men represent just one
element of the assassins network.

Like organized crime
and mafia families the world over,

these gun-for-hire operations
are believed to be controlled...

...by central figures
known as the masterminds.

And these men can be harder to catch
than the assassins themselves.

In the streets of Manila,
the capital city of the Philippines.

Locally trained assassins are hired
to carry out executions, gang land-style.

The killers themselves are just one part
of an intricate and organized network,

offering their services
through the criminal underground.

Assassinations start with payment
from a client to a middleman.

The middle man
then contacts the mastermind...

...who controls a ring
of gun-for-hire killers.

The assassin is given the details
of his target,

and a portion of his pay upfront...

...with the remainder
to be delivered after the kill.

Inevitably however,

these killers
run into the cold hand of the law.

At the national maximum security
penitentiary in Manila,

justice knows no mercy
for men like these.

Those who are caught are charged in court
for first degree murder.

They did not end up as a guns-for-hire,

but as a murderer,
others end up with homicide case.

If a person is found to be
a guns-for-hire killer,

he ends up with the death penalty
or a life sentence.

Law enforcement agencies look for
other ways to control the violence...

...by imposing tighter regulations
on firearms.

But much like the US,
a gun “culture” is said to have emerged.

The Filipinos came to love guns.

The favorite handgun of a Filipino
is the 45-caliber pistol,

which the Americans brought with them...

...when they liberated the country
from the Japanese.

It's a favorite weapon of choice.
I carry a 45 myself.

But with escalating violence,

the Philippines police have launched
an intense campaign,

specifically targeting gun-related crimes.

Nationwide gun bans are now put in place
prior to major elections.

The bans prohibit civilians from carrying
firearms outside of their homes,

with thousands of checkpoints
established across the country.

But we are very strict...

...particularly on the implementation
of the firearms law.

Especially looking at the crime statistics
and the crime mapping,

it will tell us what particular hour
of the day or night.

Firearms are being used.

So we do a lot of checkpoints...

...to check on vehicles
and even motorists,

to check especially firearms and drugs.

According to figures released
by the Philippine National Police,

the bans resulted in an almost 70 percent
drop in crime across the country.

But more work remains to be done,

especially when firearms can easily
be acquired on the black market.

A 45-caliber pistol...

...legally costs just 90 thousand pesos.

You can get a gun for as low as
five thousand or even lower.

When it comes to the
manufacturing of guns,

the criminal mind finds new
and disturbing ways...

...of creating potentially lethal weapons.

Beginning with a toy gun,

illegal gun-makers in the Philippines
are able to fashion a real firing device,

out of household items.

A weapon capable of taking a life.

With no end in sight
to the rampant poverty...

...that plagues Philippines society,

there are likely to be more willing
young men...

...who view contract killing as
a legitimate option for a better future.

In the process,

they draw the attention
of specialized police...

...who are now targeting
the assassin network.

In Metro Manila,

we don't have a list or a big number
of private armed group bags.

And we have a campaign
to be able to remove these groups,

disarm them and identify them,
it's a year round thing.

Because of poverty,

I mean the Philippines
is still a poor third world country.

Our history is a history of struggle.

The ordinary man's everyday struggle
against poverty.

So if you offer someone money,

even if it is just a few dollars,

you are going to have a hired
killer who can kill people.

But poverty is no excuse for murder.

For the victims that have experienced
the cruelty of the professional assassin,

and a society that has long grown weary
of violence and bloodshed,

the killings cannot come to an end
soon enough.

Well, my message
for the gun for hire groups,

or those people who perpetrated
my failed assassination...

...or the whole industry
of the gun for hire.

I understand your situation.
It's a livelihood for you.

And you have no personal...

We have no personal things between us.

You're not mad at me.
Somebody just paid you.

And you don't even know who paid you.

So...

I'm lucky but those others
who will not be lucky,

some of your targets,

remember that one day you die too.

If you believe in God,
you believe in there's a second life.

Well, during that judgment day...

...when you are on the dying bed,

you'll remember that
you killed a lot of people.

People who you don't know,

the reason why they were killed...

...and let's see each other
in the second life.

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