Extortion (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)
CITY OF ILAGAN, Isabela — A provincial employee of the National Bureau of Investigation was suspended for allegedly extorting P2,000 from the husband of an overseas contract worker in order to fast track the release of an NBI clearance.
A security officer and technical support staff of the NBI Isabela district office in Barangay (village) Osmeña had been under fire in social media due to a video post which supposedly caught him in the act of receiving money from a resident of Naguilian town in Isabela.
The NBI employee had reportedly offered to facilitate the processing of the documents for the man’s wife, a domestic helper in the United Arab Emirates.
But the NBI employee demanded to be paid for the service. The transaction was secretly videotaped by the man’s companion, which was posted online.
The two-minute-and-19-second footage has been viewed 500,000 times, shared 4,709 times, and drew 1,000 comments from netizens.
Timoteo Rejano, officer-in-charge of the NBI Isabela office, said he launched an investigation and had written NBI Director Dante Gieran to inform him about the issue.
“Our office is assuring the public that this will never be done again. We relieved [the NBI employee] from his duties here pending the probe,” he said. SFM