NBI asks Interpol to help nab Ivler

MANILA, Philippines - The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said yesterday it plans to ask the help of the International Police Organization (Interpol) just in case road rage murder suspect Jason Ivler plans to leave the country.

However, NBI special action unit chief Angelito Magno denied earlier reports that Ivler has left the country.

Ivler is the primary suspect in the murder of Renato Victor Ebarle Jr., a son of Undersecretary Renato Ebarle Sr., who works at the Office of the Presidential Chief of Staff.

Magno said they are tapping the services of Interpol to make sure their counterparts overseas are aware that Ivler is a “flight risk” and “has the capability to go abroad and hide.”

“But rest assured, Ivler is still in the country,” he said.

Ivler, after figuring in a car crash that killed presidential adviser Nestor Ponce in 2004, was caught trying to leave the country on a ship.

Ivler, the son of writer and artist Marlene Aguilar and stepson of British diplomat Stephen James Pollard, has been the subject of a nationwide manhunt after the Nov. 18 shooting. Marlene is the sister of folk singer Freddie Aguilar.

Earlier reports said Ivler might use the country’s “back door” to escape, noting his family’s influence and financial capability to leave the country undetected or under an assumed name.

Magno said the NBI is still waiting for the Quezon City regional trial court to issue a warrant for Ivler’s arrest for the road rage shooting.

Meanwhile, the head of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) yesterday said he does not believe the claim of Jason Ivler’s mother that he was being held by a “very influential group.”

 “They just want to get us off track (in our manhunt),” QCPD director Chief Superintendent Elmo San Diego said in an interview.

QCPD deputy director for operations Senior Superintendent Audie Arroyo said that with the raising of the reward for Ivler’s capture from P500,000 to P1 million, more tipsters wound be enticed to inform the police on the suspect’s whereabouts, noting that information on the murder suspect has become a “sellable merchandise.” – Sandy Araneta, Reinir Padua