NBI director going on leave

I’m sorry to learn about Director Magtanggol Gatdula of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) going on leave because of an ongoing probe into the kidnapping of a Japanese woman by some of his men.

Gatdula had a spotless record when he was with the Philippine National Police (PNP), and I’m sure he tried to keep his reputation intact when he joined the bureau.

But then the NBI has a culture much different from where he came from: from a semimilitary organization that is the PNP, where discipline is strictly enforced, to an institution that is the NBI, where discipline is implied but not stated for its members because they are supposed to be responsible people as they are lawyers, certified public accountants and others who hold master’s and doctorate degrees.

What Gatdula, a lawyer, didn’t know was that there are rank-and-file members of the bureau, like security guards who secure bureau premises

and facilities, who think and act like NBI line agents (lawyers and accountants).

There’s a Filipino saying that a fly perched on the back of a carabao thinks it’s already a carabao.

That exactly describes the members of the NBI security management division (SMD) who arrested without a warrant and detained Noriyo Ohara, 33, at the NBI headquarters for more than a month.

In the first place, SMD members are not authorized to make arrests as they are not line agents.

Secondly, they didn’t have any mission order from Gatdula when they arrested Ohara, an undocumented alien, in Bugallon, Pangasinan province, on Oct. 29.

Arresting an undocumented alien is not the job of the NBI but of the Bureau of Immigration.

Worse, SMD members led by Mario Garcia, SMD chief, and his deputy, Jose Cabillan, demanded a P15-million ransom from Ohara’s foster family for her release.

A certain Chona Espina, who hung around at the SMD office, confiscated from Ohara a suitcase containing very expensive watches, jewelry, an Apple laptop, documents pertaining to her house in Parañaque City,  a 2010 model BMW car and two Honda cars.

Espina, reportedly Garcia’s or Cabillan’s girlfriend, should be made to return all the things she took from Ohara.

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This is probably the worst crime that NBI members have committed in its 75-year history.

As I said in my Saturday column, I’m surprised why newspapers and radio and TV news networks didn’t give too much attention to Ohara’s kidnapping for ransom by members of the country’s premier law-enforcement agency.

Ohara has been moved from the immigration detention center inside Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City, to an undisclosed location for her safety.

The Japanese woman, who left her country to escape the wrath of the Yakuza that had killed her father, was turned over by the NBI to the immigration bureau on orders from Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

I had earlier asked De Lima to intervene in Ohara’s behalf after representations I made with the NBI for her release fell on deaf ears.

I learned about Ohara’s kidnapping after members of her foster family, the Marzans of Bugallon, complained to me on my public service program, “Isumbong mo kay Tulfo,” on Radyo Inquirer-dzIQ.

The members of the Marzan family—Glenda Marzan, Tina Marzan Vinluan and Johnny Perez—have been placed under the Witness Protection Program of the Department of Justice because of threats to their lives.