NBI officials relieved without reason

The relief of National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Deputy Directors Rey Esmeralda and Ruel Lasala from their posts has become a hot topic in coffee shops.

The officials, who are both lawyers, are questioning the move—which is tantamount to dismissal from the bureau—in the Supreme Court.

Esmeralda and Lasala were presidential appointees and served at the pleasure of the appointing authority.

It’s the President’s prerogative to choose and sack the people he appoints to key positions in government.

However, it was unfair to Esmeralda and Lasala who were removed without being told the reason why.

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“We rose from the ranks, we have tenure of office. We’re not like the NBI director who can be replaced anytime,” Lasala said.

Both earned their promotions in the bureau.

The highest position in the NBI is that of director;  the second highest is that of assistant director.

Until their relief, Esmeralda was deputy director for intelligence services while Lasala was deputy director for special investigation services.

All those years they spent with the bureau have been wasted.

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Esmeralda is probably the first high-ranking NBI official who was ambushed.

The attempt on his life, from which he came out practically unscathed, took place two years ago.

The suspects in his ambush are now in the bureau’s custody.

With Esmeralda out of the NBI, the probability that these men and the mastermind will be prosecuted has dimmed.

His relief also means that he has lost the protection of the bureau and is now an easy target  of  who might try to make another attempt on his life.

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Why was Esmeralda ambushed?

Some of his colleagues in the bureau suspected him of tipping me off on the kidnapping of a Japanese woman, Norio Ohara, by some NBI agents.

My exposé led to the relief of then NBI Director Magtanggol Gatdula and the prosecution of several agents.

Ohara remains in the custody of the government Witness Protection Program.

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A total of 18 packs of high-grade cocaine, part of the South Korea-bound 65-pack shipment found in a container van at a Davao City port, had yet to be accounted for as of Monday.

Originally, only 24 packs were found by police in the refrigerated van after they were tipped of about the shipment by port authorities.

Each pack has a street value of P6 million.

Mayor Rody Duterte appealed to workers at the port to turn in the missing packs and promised they would not be prosecuted.

After Duterte’s appeal, 23 packs turned up but 18 are still missing.