Ex-NBI chief charged for ambush

The sale of an automatic rifle allegedly used to shoot a National Bureau of Investigation official because the perpetrators had not been fully paid led to the filing of frustrated murder charges against 13 people, including former NBI head Magtanggol Gatdula and a businessman with ties to the IT provider of the agency.

While NBI Deputy Director for Technical Services Reynaldo Esmeralda was not surprised that Gatdula was implicated in the Feb. 21 attempt to liquidate him, he admitted to being stunned by Izumo Contractors Inc. owner Tyrone Ong’s alleged involvement in the plot. Ong is also identified with Strategic and Comprehensive Consultants Inc. (SCCI) which is in a joint venture with Realtime Data Management Service Inc., the IT provider for the NBI’s clearance issuance service.

“He (Ong) texted me two days after I was ambushed. He expressed concern and said, ’I just heard what happened. I just finished praying for your recovery.’ And I responded with gratitude. But when he greeted me on Father’s Day, I did not respond because I had already been informed (that he was a suspect),” Esmeralda told the Inquirer.

He said Ong was an adopted “mistah” of Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class of 1976 to which Gatdula and two other retired police officers facing cases of their own—Jesus Versoza and Eliseo de la Paz—belonged.

At Thursday’s press conference at NBI headquarters, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima announced the filing in the Department of Justice of frustrated murder charges against Gatdula and Ong, who were tagged as the principals; Perfecto Villanueva, a retired policeman and Ong’s security aide; Ronnie Ong, the alleged recruitment officer of the group; Ramoso Ramos, the alleged driver, and the alleged gunman Teodoro Abendano.

Others charged were Ricky Dacillo, Gerry Farillon, Jose Maglalang, Gino Eustaquio and twins Aljun and Alvin Monticlaros.

De Lima told reporters that Maglalang used to drive for NBI Deputy Director for Intelligence Ruel Lasala and “provided the group with information and details of Esmeralda’s movements, including his departure from NBI headquarters on the night of Feb. 21.”

The twins, the secretary said, were the lookouts and ran errands for the plotters. On the day of the ambush, they were allegedly armed with handguns and given orders to neutralize the NBI deputy director’s security men.

Of the 13 respondents, seven are under NBI custody, after five of them voluntary surrendered to the bureau. The seven, De Lima said, will undergo a preliminary investigation.

She said Gatdula and Ong were implicated in a sworn statement executed by Villanueva, who claimed that he was ordered by Ong sometime in January to hire gunmen to kill Esmeralda.

He said in a sworn statement that he overheard Gatdula ask Ong about the progress of the plot to kill Esmeralda and that he was even mistaken for the gunman by Gatdula.

NBI Reaction, Arrest and Interdiction Division (RAID) head Jonathan Ross Galicia told the Inquirer  that the key to the solution of the case was the Olympic Arms 5.56-mm high-powered rifle used in the slay attempt on Esmeralda that was recovered by the NBI.

Galicia said the gun came into the NBI’s possession two weeks after the ambush after it was sold to someone else for P90,000 by Abendano after the alleged perpetrators were not paid the entire P1 million they were promised for the hit on Esmeralda.

A source told the Inquirer that Abendano only received P1,000, Ramoso P20,000, Ompoc P30,000 and Farillon P10,000.