‘Tanim-bala’ OFW victim accuses NBI of cover-up

MANILA, Philippines - A lawyer of one of the reported victims of the tanim-bala or bullet-planting scheme yesterday questioned the findings of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) declaring the absence of a syndicate behind the extortion racket at the airport.

Spocky Farolan, counsel of overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Gloria Ortinez who lost her job in Hong Kong after falling prey to the tanim-bala scheme, called on the Office of the Ombudsman to conduct a separate probe and look into possible liabilities of ranking airport officials.

Farolan believes the results of the NBI probe were influenced by earlier pronouncements by President Aquino.

“It is sad that the NBI appears to have balanced things out. Even if we believe in their findings that there really is such tanim-bala scheme, we are afraid that they announced that there was no syndicate because it was what the Chief Executive said. They have to stand by such pronouncement,” Farolan said.

However, the Department of Justice (DOJ), which has direct supervision and control over the NBI, clarified there is a possibility that a syndicate was behind the extortion scheme.

DOJ Undersecretary and spokesman Emmanuel Caparas made this clarification yesterday, saying the NBI findings that those behind the scheme are not organized as a syndicate was only preliminary.

“Yes, we are not closing our door to that possibility (that a syndicate really exists). What the NBI said in this report is that based on information gathered during the limited period of investigation, there was no likelihood of a syndicate,” Caparas explained.

He said this is one of the reasons why the NBI would continue with its investigation after the month-long probe.

“The investigation is not over yet. This will continue. The investigation is not over yet with the same inclination to really find out how these incidents came to be and why it’s continuing to this day,” Caparas said.

Caparas hinted the probe could even expand to cover not only airport officials, but also other offices like prosecutors and police officials.

“We just released the initial findings because it was an urgent matter that people have been clamoring for a result,” he pointed out.

Farolan, however, is hoping that the Office of the Ombudsman would include Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) general manager Jose Angel Honrado in its probe.

Farolan said Honrado was negligent in stopping the extortion activities at the airport.

He said the ombudsman should also look into how Honrado allocated MIAA’s intelligence and confidential funds which could have been used to investigate initial complaints of extortion attempts.