PNP wants to search Revilla compound

MANILA, Philippines - Officials of the Cavite provincial police are seeking a search warrant to enable them to enter the compound of Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. in Bacoor, Cavite and look for 30 alleged armed agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

Superintendent Rommel Estolano, spokesman for the Cavite Provincial Police Office, said the focus of the search would be the firearms believed to be in possession of the alleged NBI agents.

We are applying for a search warrant so we can search the compound of Senator Revilla. We cannot divulge where to search and what items will be seized,” Estolano told reporters yesterday at the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

“Until we have searched the compound, the presumption is the armed men who (evaded the authorities) are still there,” he added.

The 30 armed men are being pursued by authorities for violating the election gun ban.

Estolano said policemen were deployed last Sunday near Revilla’s compound along Aguinaldo Highway in Bacoor “to provide police visibility.”

“We are providing police visibility but it doesn’t mean that we are cordoning off the area. It is part of our job to prevent untoward incidents,” he added.

On Monday, six armed men believed to be connected with the NBI were arrested for violating the gun ban.

The arrest was made after the Bacoor City police station received reports about the presence of armed men near Revilla’s compound at about 1 a.m. last Monday.

Recovered from the suspects were two caliber .45 pistols, six magazines for caliber .45 pistol loaded with 52 live ammunition and one magazine for AK 47 containing 25 live ammunition.

Estolano said the six armed men, five of them NBI confidential agents, have been charged with usurpation of authority, violation of the election gun ban, and unauthorized use of uniform.

The five alleged confidential agents were released after they posted bail, while the armed man who claimed to be an organic NBI member is still being investigated.

Revilla has denied claims that guns were kept in his compound and accused the police of harassment.

He also claimed that the policemen in Cavite are engaged in partisan politics.

Estolano, however, insisted that their operation is not directed at Revilla but against the violators of the election gun ban.

For his part, PNP spokesman Chief Superintendent Generoso Cerbo Jr. said they are ready to cooperate in the event that the Senate conducts a probe on the incident.

NBI-Internal Affairs Division (IAS) chief Elizaldo Beltran said that they would conduct an investigation into the incident to determine if the NBI agents committed administrative offenses.

Beltran said that they would ask the agents – identified as Honor Santos, Efifanio Baria, Rosauro Estardo, Rizalos Ronario, Danilo Cruz, and Frederick Galvez – to submit their explanation.

“We have not yet submitted any letter or notice. But I was given an instruction by NBI Director Nonnatus Cesar Rojas that once the bureau’s Cavite District Office has submitted (its report) we would conduct a thorough investigation here at IAS,” said Beltran.

He explained that the criminal case the PNP filed in Cavite against the six NBI agents is different from the administrative investigation that the NBI-IAS would be conducting.

The NBI-IAS would also be coordinating with the PNP.

He said that if the NBI agents committed a violation, they could either be suspended or reprimanded but this would depend on the gravity of the offense.

Ex-Bacoor mayor implicated

Former mayor Jessie Castillo of Bacoor has been dragged into the controversy surrounding the arrest of agents and civilian agents of the NBI who were asked to secure the compound of the Revilla family in Cavite.

NBI investigation showed that Castillo accompanied the police teams that surrounded the Revilla compound where a group of men carrying high-powered firearms had sought refuge.

Castillo, a political rival of the Revillas, was on board the police vehicle, according to a letter from the family’s lawyer Salvador Panelo.

Panelo sent a letter to the NBI to seek security assistance.

The former Bacoor mayor, a member of the ruling Liberal Party, challenged but lost to Revilla’s wife, re-electionist Cavite 2nd district Rep. Lani Mercado-Revilla.

In an interview, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima confirmed that Senator Revilla had sought the NBI’s assistance.

“The NBI team said they were able to validate from certain residents in the area that there was vote-buying at the time, so they went there to monitor but they didn’t intend to arrest those involved because they were lacking in number,” she revealed.

De Lima said the supposed vote-buying activity was being conducted by “a group, which logic would tell you pertaining to their (Revilla’s) rival.” She did not say whether she was referring to Castillo and the policemen.

With this premise, the justice chief reiterated the NBI operation was “legitimate.”

She confirmed that the camp of Revilla had requested the assistance of the NBI men after fully armed members of the police regional public safety battalion (RPSB) arrived and “surrounded” the senator’s mansion. The team tried to set up a Commission on Elections checkpoint near the village hall in Barangay Panapaan VII around 11 p.m. last Sunday.

But she clarified that the NBI operation was “under a cloud of doubt” after it was discovered that some members of the bureau team were confidential agents.

She had revoked the authority of confidential agents following the involvement of some of them in the kidnapping of Japanese Noriyo Ohara in 2011 that led to the sacking of then NBI director Magtanggol Gatdula.

De Lima had directed the NBI to conduct an investigation into the incident and determine who could be held liable. – With Edu Punay, Evelyn Macairan