Aquino accepts intel chief’s resignation

President Aquino on Monday said he had accepted the resignation of two top officials of the government’s spy agency, following incidents that posed threats to national security.

Aquino said he had accepted the resignation of retired Gen. Trifonio Salazar, head of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), and Deputy Director General Eric Gosiengfiao.

The President said retiring police general Ager Ontog would be the new NICA director general.

A female intelligence expert, whom the President did not name, would be the agency’s deputy chief. “She rose through the ranks,” was all Aquino would say about this official who could be the first woman appointed to an important post in the intelligence community.

“She could be the first Filipina ‘M’,” a source privy to the changes at NICA told the Inquirer, referring to the female head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6, the boss of writer Ian Fleming’s famous spy, James Bond.

Salazar and Gosiengfiao resigned more than a week ago, the source said, adding that the attack by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in Zamboanga City was the “culminating” factor that led to Salazar’s resignation.

Salazar had a personal stake in the Zamboanga incident, the source who requested anonymity for the lack of authority to speak to media, said. Salazar’s wife is Zamboanga City Mayor Ma. Isabelle Climaco-Salazar.

Prior to Zamboanga, the government also had to deal with the Sulu Sultanate’s sudden revival of its claim to Sabah, as well as a deadly bombing in Cagayan de Oro City, among other security incidents.

Despite those lapses, Aquino described Salazar as having “done a lot of good in the intel community in the three years that he was NICA chief.”

The source said Salazar might be given another government post.