Babman


Babman is an adventure story arc of the Philippine comic strip series Pugad Baboy, created by Pol Medina Jr. and originally published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. This particular story arc lasts 37 strips long. In 2002, the story arc was reprinted in Katorse, the fourteenth book compilation of the comic strip series.

Synopsis

Babman, the "Pork Knight", is Bab's secret identity. He is otherwise known as Bruce Swine to residents of Gothom City where as Babman, he patrols at night looking for situations with potential for violence and criminal activity.
In Sapang Talahib, a different squatters' area, Bab meet Mr. Chan, owner of the "Shaolin Temple", a restaurateur who hired him as a waiter. Mr. Chan becomes Bab's friend and master in the Kung Fu style known as the "Stoned Dragon", a martial arts technique practiced with the aid of a healthy dose of marijuana. Mr. Chan declares Bab a "Stoned Master" and has him receive the Master's mark - a Dragon and Tiger tattoo made by placing cast iron hot plates on both forearms. Bab's mother, however, discovers his "Stoned Master" status and has him rehabilitated for four months. Upon his release, he returns to Sapang Talahib, and discovers that the area had been converted into a parking lot for a nearby mall. He follows the former residents to Cavite, where they had been resettled in a place they called Gothom City, as Sapang Talahib mysteriously suffered fire, allegedly done by corrupt police officers to forcefully abandon the area, while reasoning behind the fire as "Faulty Electrical Wiring", a common cause of fire among squatter's area.

"Samting fishy"

A few months pass before the Gothom City residents are harassed by goons hired by the lot's owner. Babman decides to defend the residents from these goons, using the street fighting techniques he had learned from Mr. Chan. Some time later, Bab learns that the residents were being moved again, this time by hiring professional squatters and goons to harass the residents, despite their earlier vehement opposition to being relocated. This arouses his suspicions that something fishy was going on, while fresh and dried fish vendors walks by.
His investigation reveal that a certain Doña Fe Bagamundo had bought the Gothom City lot. He also discovered that the same Doña Fe had bought all the lots formerly occupied by the Gothom City residents. Babman stakes out the residents at the new relocation site they called Malunggay Uno. Goons again harass the squatters, but instead of confronting them, Babman begins tailing the bad guys. As he suspected, the goons make their way to Doña Fe's mansion. Eavesdropping on the group, Babman learns their modus operandi: Doña Fe's goons pretend to be the lot owner's bad guys; they would encourage violence until public sympathy fell in favor of the squatters and the lot owner was forced to sell the land. Babman learns the awful truth - the people he had been defending are professional squatters. He tries to determine who the legitimate squatters were and also interviews the lots' former owners, before getting into a showdown with Doña Fe and her goons.

Unmasking the mastermind

Babman captures the goons and gathers the residents in a meeting to explain the whole plot. He prevails on the residents to cooperate when he brings the case to the Solicitor-General, in order for the lots to be returned to their rightful owners. He, however, decides not to reveal the identities of the professional squatters just yet. He is about to take Rufo, Doña Fe's head goon and the other bad guys to the DILG when he sees something on Rufo's arms. He asks the residents to give him two hours - there is someone missing from his list of bad guys.
Babman returns to the "Shaolin Temple" he encounters the crooked cops who were part of Doña Fe's racket. He takes away their guns and goes looking for Mr. Chan. Babman reveals his identity to Mr. Chan, who asks how Babman was able to uncover his collusion with Doña Fe. Babman explains that he saw the tiger and dragon tattoo on Rufo's arms. He also details that a check of Mr Chan's files at the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation reveal that he is an illegal alien named Chian Jie Yao who just used Doña Fe to buy the land for him, since Philippine laws prohibit foreign land ownership. Bab attempts to arrest Mr. Chan, who blows cannabis smoke at his face and executes the "Stoned Dragon" technique. Fortunately, Bab had learned a countermeasure; the "Curly Joe Defense". As Mr. Chan and Bab square off, the crooked cops barge in with their back-up revolvers. Using the fighting technique he had learned from watching Robert Jaworski, "Basketball Kung Fu", Bab subdues all three bad guys.
Mr. Chan's severed head and Doña Fe are turned over to the NBI after they were charged with conspiracy, grave threats and arson. The squatters move out of the land while the case is heard.
At the end of the story, Polgas stresses that this battle is only one in series of battles and said Mr. Chan and Doña Fe are not the only masterminds of the scheme. As he unrolls a scroll near him, Mr. Chan is in the middle, Doña Fe in lower rank, there are more higher-ups in the chain, including the Department of Agrarian Reform, National Housing Authority, Philippine National Police and AFP officers, Bureau of Immigration, Congressmen and Senators, even Presidents. He explained it all in a sarcastic manner, sarcastic voice and sarcastic facial expressions.

Continuity