The battle-royale for deputy directorship of the NBI is heating up

It’s not true that Director Nestor Mantaring of the National Bureau of Investigation, as rumored, is "blocking" the appointment to the number two slot in his agency of Police Director, Chief Superintendent Pedro Bulaong.

Mantaring, the first career man to occupy the NBI directorship would never be so rash as to do so – since he knows that Bulaong is a Palace "favorite." Career men who rose from the ranks don’t have the itch to commit political suicide by challenging, so early in the game, the high and the mighty.

To be sure, when he discussed NBI matters a few days ago, I asked Mantaring point-blank whether he opposed the nomination of Bulaong, and he replied just as quickly that it is the prerogative of the President to designate anybody of her confidence. Well, I checked into it later – and it seems that, for all his other merits, Bulaong can’t be Deputy Director because he is not a lawyer.

In short, the President can appoint a non-lawyer, and non-CPA, to be Director of the NBI – for instance, the late General Wycke Wycoco – since that is a post normally reserved for a "political appointee." But all subsequent higher ranking positions, from Director V or Assistant Director to Director III (the real title of the number two deputy) must be occupied by a qualified lawyer.

Bulaong may be a good cop, and one personally close to the appointing power, but unless I’m mistaken, a lawyer he is not. In any event, Mantaring, when he was promoted to head of the agency last July 27, had submitted to the President (through Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez) the names of three prospective career officers: (1) Atty. Alejandro R. Tenerife, currently Director III and "Officer-in-charge", Office of the Asst. Director; Atty. Rickson L. Chiong, Director III, currently "Deputy Director" for Administrative Services (ODDAS); and Atty. Victor A. Bessat, Director III, currently Deputy Director for Special Investigation Services (ODDSIS).

I think that Tenerife may be due to retire in two months or so, which leaves Chiong and Bessat in contention.

Bessat has been with the Bureau since 1967 and has actively served in most of the major outposts from Laoag City, Vigan, and San Fernando (La Union) in the Ilocos provinces, to Calapan, Mindoro; and as Regional Director, NNI-Western Mindanao (WEMRO) in Zamboanga City. He trained in anti-Narcotics in Florida, Arizona, New York City, and Tokyo, Japan; in Sub-Regional Cooperation in Bangkok, Thailand; and Anti-Terrorism in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has been Deputy Director for Intelligence Services, Regional Operations Services, and is now Deputy Director of the Investigative Services.

If this sounds like an endorsement, so be it. But again, it’s entirely up to the President to make her choice.

The fact is that the NBI – sadly fallen in public confidence and esteem from the glory days of the late Joe Lukban (when everybody rejoiced the minute the NBI agents arrived at any crime scene) to the "Make My Day" directorship of Fred Lim – is riddled with venal and corrupt agents. It has also gained ill-repute as a vehicle for political or private "harassment." The agency needs tough, uncompromising men at the helm to get itself cleaned up and restored to its sterling image of the past.

In sum, its badge has grown rusty and too many of its agents are not only distrusted but, even worse, feared as bullies or trigger-happy mercenaries, and "protectors" of druglords and other criminal syndicates.

Mantaring and whoever becomes his Deputy have a man-sized job to tackle – and they’d better have sand in their craw.

* * *

One of the questions I took up with Director Mantaring was the case of Captain Reynaldo H. Jaylo who has for months gone underground as a "fugitive" from unjust charges leveled at him and eleven of his agents by certain elements in the NBI. Jaylo had been head of the now-defunct Presidential Anti-Illegal Recruitment Task Force (PAIRTF) and had been too successful at the task assigned to him by the President. Within the first eight months, he had busted so many illegal recruitment racketeers that the word went out on the street that one big illegal recruitment "boss" alone had put a P2 million "price" on his head.

When I brought the matter directly to La Presidenta of Jaylo being assailed by a powerful lobby ranged against him, and the prospect of his PAIRTF being terminated (its writ expired in a year), GMA retorted that "even those who originally recommended Jaylo for the job are now complaining about him – and want him out."

I had pointed out then that Jaylo had obviously gone "out of (their) control," contrary to what they had expected. Very shortly afterwards, Jaylo was shafted, with NBI raiding teams descending on his headquarters, arresting his men in the PAIRTF, and, finding a number of suspects, i.e. accused illegal recruiters, detained there, charging Jaylo not only with "corruption" but with "illegal detention."

Were the NBI raids done, as the buzz persists, on orders of higher-ups in the Department of Justice? A warrant of arrest was issued on Captain Jaylo, and a "hold order" against any attempt at departure was lodged in Immigration on instructions of the DOJ. In street-parlance, Jaylo’s goose was cooked – but who were funding the "chefs"?

The last time I heard from Jaylo – one of the nation’s crack shots, and a former agent (along with the late Senator Robert Z. Barbers) in Fred Lim’s two-fisted NBI – was over the telephone about eight months ago. Jaylo told me he was not going to surrender, and had gone "underground."

He said that if he was ever taken into custody his enemies would have him "murdered" in his prison cell.

He’s still at large. How disgracefully we repay our law enforcers who do their job – in the tawdry coin of false accusations and a warrant of arrest.

Well, here’s the score. In a decision rendered in early July, Manila Regional Trial Court Judge Marcelino Sayo of RTC 45 dismissed the charges against 11 former members of Jaylo’s PAIRTF "Task Force." In a 13-page court order, Sayo dismissed for lack of evidence the cases of qualified bribery, robbery and violation of Republic Act 3019 against four police officers, and seven intelligence officers, who had worked under Jaylo. The 11 PAIRTF agents were immediately released from the Manila City jail where they had been confined since October last year.

Judge Sayo asserted he had ruled to release the agents and dismiss the cases filed against them since he found the pieces of "evidence" presented by the prosecution to be insufficient. He said that he could not include Jaylo in the list of acquitted persons because of his failure to appear in the Court hearings. Sayo told reporters that the cases filed against Jaylo would be archived.

The case involving Jaylo’s agents stemmed from an incident which allegedly transpired on October 7 last year when the 11 PAIRTF agents supposedly received P60,000 from one of those nabbed for "large-scale illegal recruitment" in exchange for release from PAIRTF detention and the dropping of the charges. The bankbook, however, the NBI and other lawmen claimed "showed" the time, place and amount of the bribe, was never produced or offered as evidence in Court by the prosecution.

A frame-up? What do you think?

I asked Mantaring what could be done to "clear" Jaylo of those false charges. He proposed that Jaylo voluntarily surrender, so that the case could be properly heard and closure achieved legally in court. Will Rey Jaylo do so? Or does he remain suspicious that once he "surfaces," he will be . . . well, terminated?

This is a country where murder stalks the land. And it’s not just militants and activists, or journalists who’re at risk. It’s sad that Jaylo, who did so much to enforce the law, risking himself in actual shoot-outs more than a score of times, cannot get justice for himself.