NBI agents in kidnap-for-ransom case?

A Japanese woman, Noriyo Ohara, is allegedly being held at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), a virtual kidnap-for-ransom victim.

Several NBI agents are reportedly holding Ohara, 32, until her foster Filipino family comes up with the remaining P9 million ransom.

The agents are reportedly asking for P15 million.  Ohara’s foster family has, so far, raised P6 million.

Initially, the ransom demand was P100 million, but the NBI agents who took Ohara agreed to P15 million after negotiations with the Japanese woman’s foster family.

Incredible story? Read on.

Ohara is an undocumented alien, meaning she’s not listed in the Bureau of Immigration as a tourist or resident alien.

She came to the Philippines in 2009 and didn’t pass through the Ninoy Aquino International Airport immigration counter.

Picked up planeside by an immigration employee, she was whisked away to the Las Piñas house of her foster family.

But why did Ohara come to the country in a cloak-and-dagger manner?

According to accounts I gathered from her foster family, Ohara came to Manila because the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia, wanted to kill her. The gang had killed her father earlier.

Ohara’s Filipino friend working in Japan contacted an immigration employee who assured them that she would not pass through the immigration desk upon her arrival in Manila.

For a while, Ohara, through her foster family, gave a monthly stipend to the immigration employee.

But the monthly stipend stopped when the immigration employee retired.

Angered by the move, the retiree reported Ohara to some agents at the NBI.

On Oct. 28, 2011, NBI agents in four vans and two cars arrested Ohara in Bugallon, Pangasinan province.

By this time, Ohara had assumed the identity of Marife Marzan, after her foster family’s last name.

NBI agents told the Marzan family they were taking custody of Ohara, a.k.a. Marife Marzan, for being an undocumented alien.

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

The agents brought Ohara to the NBI headquarters on Taft Avenue in Manila and detained her at the Security Management Division (SMD).

They told the Marzans that Ohara would be released only if they can come up with P100 million.

They dropped their demand to P15 million later.

Members of the Marzan clan—Glenda Marzan, Cristina Vinluan and Johnny Perez—delivered P6 million in installments to the NBI headquarters.

The first tranche, P1 million, was allegedly received by Jose Odellon Cabillan, SMD’s executive officer, and a certain Chona.

The amount was allegedly handed over in the presence of Mario Garcia, the SMD chief, and a certain Labsky.

On Nov. 2, 2011, Cabillan allegedly received from the Marzans P4 million inside the SMD chief’s office.

On Nov. 9, 2011, the Marzans again handed P1 million to Cabillan and Chona.

One of the Marzans asked if the NBI agents would release Ohara after completing the P9 million ransom payment.

Garcia reportedly told the Marzans they would have to sell the house and BMW car that Ohara owns, and the proceeds to be given to the NBI agents.

“Marami pang pogi sa itaas ang dapat nating ayusin (There are many handsome guys upstairs who should be taken care of),” Garcia was quoted as saying.

Garcia was apparently referring to the NBI’s big bosses who had to be given a share of the pie.

Desperate, the Marzans came to me.

I then told the Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (Pacer) office in Camp Crame about their plight.

As this column was being written Friday, I made an appointment with Justice Secretary Leila de Lima later in the afternoon to check on the veracity of the report of nefarious activities perpetrated by some of her subordinates at the NBI.