NBI creates anti-kidnap task force

Alarmed by kidnap-for-ransom incidents in the metropolis, the National Bureau of Investigation has created its own special task force to help lick the problem.

The special unit, according to NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco, will be supervised by deputy director for special investigation Samuel Ong and will be composed of at least 50 crack agents.

"It will be a big division. There would be more than 50 agents, and we will conduct our own operations in coordination with the National Anti-Crime Commission (NACC)," Wycoco said.

Wycoco said the NBI anti-kidnapping task force would operate independently of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

"The anti-kidnapping task force under Deputy Director-General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. includes the CIDG and NBI. The creation of our anti-kidnapping unit is in response to the President’s directive to intensify the effort against kidnapping," he said.

Wycoco said agents of the NBI’s Special Task Force (STF), Special Action Unit (SAU) and Field Operations Division (FOD) would compose the bulk of the new anti-kidnapping unit. Agents from the NBI’s National Capital Region office would act as support group. – Mike Frialde