Bagman

- Season 1

(2019)

After escaping death - twice in one night, Benjo Malaya (Arjo Atayde), a small-town barber turned recounts the events that led him down the dark and dangerous path of becoming the Governor's "Bagman".

Ghosts from his criminal past continue to haunt Benjo, and this gets him thinking about his future.

Cito trains Benjo in the ways of the Bagman: leverage, manipulation, and violence. Three years later, Benjo must use all that he learned from Cito to regain control of his life from the Governor who has already betrayed him. Benjo's first move is to strike a deal with Leon, the Bagman of the Governor's political rival.

With just months from his re-election campaign, Governor Arthur Alcantara is scrutinized for his alleged ill-gotten wealth and corruption practices by the influential broadcaster reporter, Sonny Liwanag. Benjo volunteers and succeeds in silencing Sonny before the truth about the Governor is fully exposed. By serving his master well, Benjo regains the Governor's trust. Now, he is in the perfect position to execute his plan to bring the Governor down.

One by one, Benjo's offensive against the Governor unfolds. The Governor begins to lose grip on his financial benefactors, political backers and even the affection of the women in his life. Benjo's plan pushes the Governor to the brink of backing down from the elections but memories of his climb to power with Cito, sways the Governor's decision to fight on. With his failure and at Leon's gunpoint, Benjo has to resort to a desperate move to bring down the Governor and save his family.

Benjo has only three days to find the corpse of Attorney Joselito Fernando, the first kill of the Governor and Cito during their rise to power. But unknown to Benjo, the noose around his neck is getting tighter as the Governor and Attorney Alex suspects a mole among their ranks.

Benjo's search for evidence against the Governor is stifled when he is called in by Attorney Alex to do a loyalty check on the 12 Mayors of Magdiwang. During which Benjo uncovers information pointing him to the location of Joselito Fernando's corpse. Benjo races to the site. In doing so, he has confirmed Attorney Alex's (Yayo Aguila) suspicion that he is the traitor among them. The Governor orders the capture of Benjo.

Finally, Benjo digs up Joselito Fernando's briefcase which contains enough evidence to bury the Governor for murder but he is captured by the Governor's men. A bloody mess, Benjo finds himself face to face with the Governor who is on the verge of killing him. Benjo resorts to the last card up his sleeve, to pin his treachery on Tres (Angelica Yap), the Governor's youngest girlfriend.

The naive Tres falls into Benjo's trap which implicates her as Mariano's (Cris Villanueva) mole, spurring the Governor's anger and violence towards her. Atty. Alex, on the contrary, is suspicious of Benjo's shticks and is determined to pound the truth out of him, but Benjo is unyielding. However, things go south when the Governor ordered Benjo to kill Tres. Benjo tries his best to save Tres but accidentally kills her after she finds out that Benjo set her up.

After Sam refuses to leave Magdiwang with Benjo, Leon shows up at Ka Romy's house pretending to be the professor's former student. Adamant to kill Benjo, Leon stabs Benjo's leg and points a gun at him. With his life in peril, Benjo then remembers how a simple favor from the Governor led to the crumble of his marriage. As Leon prepares to pull the trigger, he receives a call from Mariano ordering him to spare Benjo's life, for Mariano cooks a plan that only Benjo can execute seamlessly.

At the Governor's party, Benjo transports a bag not to be opened until Mariano says so. Leon keeps Benjo's family as hostage. As the night continues, Benjo gets distracted by the drunk Dos. As he tries to calm her down, Benjo recounts the events which led to his loss of the Governor's favor. Dos opens Benjo's bag. There's a bomb in the bag.

Benjo seeks the Governor's help to dispose of the bomb as well as to save his family. In return, Benjo saves the Governor's life on the shoot out during the filing of candidacy, or not. The Governor died and the "invisible hands" groom Benjo to be his successor. He will be proclaimed as the new Governor, but did he really win?