Aquino wants swift probe on NBI exec’s ambush, says De Lima
President Aquino wants to see a “swift investigation” of Tuesday night’s ambush on National Bureau of Investigation Deputy Director Reynaldo Esmeralda, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Thursday as she reported “significant leads” in the hunt for the gunmen.
In a press conference following a closed-door meeting at the NBI, De Lima said she had “emphasized to the investigating team that this is something that we really need to do speedily. There should be a swift investigation. The President wants to know immediately information about the ambush and who could be responsible.”
The secretary stressed this a day after coming under fire from the camp of former NBI chief Magtanggol Gatdula for linking the ambush to the Noriyo Ohara kidnapping case that led to Gatdula’s dismissal last month.
“Why should I apologize? I never pointed fingers to the former director,” De Lima said, referring to the demand made on Wednesday by Gatdula’s lawyer, Abraham Espejo.
She clarified that, in media interviews following the ambush, she merely cited the security threats against her and other NBI officials involved in the Ohara investigation.
“But (I said) nothing more, nothing less. I didn’t say anything more so why should I apologize? I just said it in the interest of full disclosure, in the interest of transparency to drive home the point that there are security concerns … and then all of a sudden an incident like this happens,” she said.
In a phone interview from the hospital Thursday, Esmeralda said he would rather ignore Espejo’s earlier remarks that the ambush looked “staged.”
“It is very clear who is telling a lie and who is telling the truth,” Esmeralda said. In fact, he said, he still had “metal fragments on my temple but these cannot be removed until the swelling subsides.”
This appeared to be inconsistent with earlier police reports which said he mainly suffered cuts from “glass fragments” when the motorcycle-riding gunmen trained an M-16 rifle on his Land Cruiser.
The NBI official also said PO3 Nilo Esmeralda, his younger brother who was with him in the vehicle during the attack, underwent surgery on his right eye on Wednesday and would again go under the knife on Monday to remove metal fragments from his eye.
“His vision might be affected,” he added.
