PERRYSCOPE
Perry Diaz
Perry Diaz
Born to a Filipino
father and Italian mother, 56 years old Cesar Altieri Sayoc, Jr. grew up with
hardly a memory of his father since his father abandoned him as a
child. With no father to look up to, Sayoc searched the wilderness
for a father figure.
According to
Ancestry.com, Sayoc’s father, who spelled his name Ceasar Sayoc, was born in
1932 in Manila, Philippines. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1956 under
the Luce-Celler Act of 1946. He lived in North Miami Beach and was
naturalized U.S. citizen in 1970. He died in 2009.
Sayoc’s mother, the
former Madeline Altieri, was born in Brooklyn, New York. According
to Ancestry.com records, Sayoc’s parents met in 1959 while attending the
Marinello Beauty School in New York. Evidently, they moved to
Florida where Corporation records show that Sayoc’s mother had run several
businesses in the State, including one that appears to be a beauty salon.
According to court
documents, Sayoc had been living with his mother and stepfather in Aventura,
Florida for sometime. However, they kicked him out recently and he
has since been living in his van.
Filipino roots
In his LinkedIn profile,
Sayoc claims to have come from a family involved in martial arts in the
Philippines. Known as Sayoc Kali, it’s an indigenous form of martial
arts founded by Christopher Sayoc, Sr. Sayoc claimed he was the
grandson of Col. Baltazar Zook Sayoc, the father of Christopher
Sayoc, Sr.
But a statement issued
by U.S.-based Sayoc Global, LLC, who owns the Sayoc Kali registered trademark,
denied any association with Cesar Sayoc, Jr. “We can clearly and
definitively state that Cesar Sayoc Jr. has no affiliation with Sayoc Kali.
None of the authorized Sayoc Kali instructors have any record of having offered
him instruction or are aware of ever having interacted with him.”
It also said, “None
of the immediate family of Christopher Sayoc, Sr. have any personal knowledge
of the alleged bomb maker Cesar Sayoc, Jr. We are clear that Cesar
Sayoc, Jr. was not a grandchild of Baltazar Zook Sayoc.”
Sayoc’s LinkedIn profile
also said that he was a “Promoter, booking agent live entertainment, owner,
choreographer.” But a cousin, who declined to be identified, told
the NBC News that Sayoc worked as a dancer and bouncer at strip clubs at
various cities around the country.
He said that Sayoc was a
“lost soul” whose brain was affected from taking steroids. “He’s
always been a little bit of a loose cannon. He’s always been a lost soul. Too
many steroids in his day. That stuff will melt your brain,” he said.
Lawyer Ronald Lowy, who
currently represents Sayoc’s mother and sisters, had described Sayoc as a
“sick individual” who seemed “lost” and needed help. “I believe he
has issues comprehending concepts,” he said. "He is like a little boy in a
man's body."
Seminole tribe
Interestingly, a sticker
on Sayoc’s van reads “Native Americans For Trump” and his Twitter feed includes
several references to the Seminole tribe. Also of interest is
Florida corporation records showing that Sayoc had two registered businesses:
Native American Catering & Vending and VER TECH AG.
But despite the posts he
wrote on social media of his affinity to the Seminole tribe, Seminole spokesman
Gary Bitner said there were no records of Sayoc having been a member of the
tribe.
“We can find no evidence
that Cesar Altieri, Caesar Altieri, Caesar Altieri Sayoc, Ceasar Altieri
Randazzo (Facebook) or Julius Cesar Milan (Twitter) is or was a member or
employee of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, or is or was an employee of Seminole
Gaming or Hard Rock International. At this time, we cannot verify if he is or
was an employee of a vendor company.”
Why then did Sayoc feel
and show an affinity towards the Seminole tribe? Could it be that
his mother has part Seminole in her lineage? Or was it an attempt to
deny his Filipino roots, which he may never have felt any affinity
with?
If not, there is one
viable explanation: Growing up in Florida, where the Seminole tribe
was one of the biggest – if not the biggest – native American tribes in the
State, Sayoc might have bonded well with the Seminoles; hence, his affinity or
identification with them. It could also have been born out of
persecution complex where he sees himself and the Seminoles discriminated and
unfairly treated by whites. So, in spite of his Filipino roots,
Sayoc didn’t see – or feel – himself as a Filipino; he felt more at ease as a
Seminole.
Sayoc found his father
figure
When Trump formally
launched his presidential campaign in June 2015, Sayoc found in him the father
figure he had been searching for. He must have realized that they
have so many things in common; that his political belief dovetails with
Trump’s.
According to Miami
lawyer Ronald Lowy, who had represented Sayoc in past cases, Sayoc was
“attracted to Trump’s messaging, which included reaching out to ‘outsiders’ and
‘people who are angry at America.’”
“That’s me,” Sayoc must
have told himself. Yes, he finally found an “identity” that
parallels Trump’s. Sayoc saw in Trump a hero to
emulate. And emulate he did. Indeed, Trump must
have filled the empty vacuum in Sayoc’s troubled psyche, an emptiness created
when Cesar Sayoc, Sr. was detached from Sayoc’s life.
In March 2016, Sayoc
registered Republican. He opened Facebook, LinkedIn, and several
Twitter accounts where he could express his pro-Trump, pro-Republican, and
anti-Democrat sentiments.
When the 2018 midterm
election campaign season began, Sayoc followed Trump to campaign rallies
proudly wearing his “Make America Great Again”(MAGA) hat. He used
his van to promote Trump’s campaign message.
He painted or pasted the
van’s windows with collages and stickers of pro-Trump and anti-Democrat images
including photos of former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton with red
bull’s–eyes on their faces. He became a political billboard on
wheels for the world to see what the Trump campaign was all
about.
Bigotry and criminal
history
Sayoc has a long
criminal history that dates back to 1991 when he was charged with third-degree
grand theft. He pleaded guilty that same year and was sentenced to
two years of probation. His long rap sheet includes the following:
In 1994, Sayoc’s
grandmother, Viola Altieri, filed a domestic violence injunction against
him. However, it was later dismissed at her request.
In 2002, he was arrested
for making a bomb threat in Dade County, Florida. The Miami police
alleged Sayoc threatened to bomb the Florida Power and Light Co. They
said, “It would have been worse than September 11th.”
In 2004, Sayoc was
arrested on multiple charges including fraud and drug possession.
In 2009, Sayoc was
charged with operating without a valid license, not having insurance and not
having a tag light and was fined after pleading guilty to the misdemeanor
charges.
In 2014, he pleaded “no
contest” to charges of battery on a merchant and third-degree grand theft.
In 2015, during a
reunion with his college soccer team, he browbeat former teammates with racist,
sexist conspiracy theories.
In 2017, he went on
racist, antigay tirades at the Fort Lauderdale pizza shop where he worked as a
night-shift deliveryman, telling his manager Debra Gureghian that she and other
gay people along with Democrats should all be put onto an island and then
“nuked.”
Gureghian described him
as “crazed.” “There was something really off with him," she
told Washington Post. "He was very angry and angry at the
world, at blacks, Jews, gays. He never said he would kill them or
murder them or bomb them, he just said, 'If I had complete autonomy the gays,
the blacks and Jews would not survive.' He was very, very
strange."
Serial
bomber
There were other charges
against him over time. But the worst – and biggest – crime he
allegedly committed was in October 2018, which involved mailing 14 pipe bombs
to Democratic figures including former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill
Clinton, former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, former Vice President
Joe Biden, several Democratic political leaders, billionaire Democratic
mega-donor George Soros, actor Robert de Niro, and billionaire Tom Steyer, the
person behind the “Impeach Trump” movement.
He was arrested on
October 26, 2018. What led to his arrest was his fingerprint found
on a package addressed to Rep. Maxine Waters. Also, the FBI also
matched a DNA found in one of the packages to his DNA taken by the Miami police
some years back. He faces five felony charges and if convicted, he
could spend 58 years in prison.
Even though none of the
pipe bombs had detonated and killed people, Trump had admitted that the case of
Sayoc had hurt the Republican candidates and slowed down the campaign
momentum.
Many Americans believe
that Trump’s negative campaign rhetoric and hateful personal attacks against
Democratic candidates and the media was the reason for firing up the MAGA
Bomber to go on the rampage. Indeed, one can say that hatred begets
hatred.
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