NBI-7 to refer Loot’s request to central office

CEBU, Philippines — The National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas yesterday said it has not received formal communication from former Daanbantayan mayor Vicente Loot regarding the latter’s request for the agency to independently investigate his alleged drug links.

The FREEMAN was able to secure a copy of Loot’s letter furnished to NBI-7, in which the former police general and former mayor maintained innocence on “the charges raised against him from the very start.”

Like he has stressed from the beginning, Loot said he is willing to go through an independent investigation by the NBI and face “those charges if true.”

“I respectfully request an independent investigation to be conducted by your (NBI-7) office on the matter to establish the truth about the accusations, past and present,” the letter read.

Asked for comment, NBI-7 Director Tomas Enrile said yesterday that he has not received Loot’s letter yet.

Enrile, however, said he will forward such request to their central office for proper guidance if it reaches his table.

“As procedure, we will forward [the request] to NBI-Manila kung ano ang advice ng Manila,” he said.

Loot wrote the NBI after Police Regional Office-7 director, Brigadier General Debold Sinas, relayed to the media that no less than President Rodrigo Duterte got hold of the information that Loot allegedly returned to illegal drug activities.

Sinas said earlier that this information is subject for validation.

In his letter to the NBI-7, Loot attached the investigation report of Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in October 2016 that cleared him of all allegations related to illegal drug activities.

Duterte first named Loot as one of the five alleged “narco generals” in 2016.

In March 2019, Loot’s name also found its way to the “validated” list of 43 politicians supposedly involved in drugs.

Before retiring from the police force, Loot once served as a director of the police in Eastern Visayas. He then ran and won as mayor of Cebu’s northernmost town of Daanbantayan.

Loot, who did not run for another term in the May 2013 elections, has not been visible to the public eye after a failed attempt on his life May of last year. (FREEMAN)