NBI probes men linked to extortion

The chief of the National Bureau of Investigation has ordered the top three officials of the agency to look into allegations of extortion activities by some NBI men.

NBI Director Nonnatus Rojas said he had directed Deputy Director for Special Investigation Services Medardo de Lemos, Deputy Director for Regional Operations Virgilio Mendes, and lawyer Edmundo Arugay to conduct three separate investigations.

The order stemmed from a column item by Ramon Tulfo in the Inquirer Metro section about a bureau official and his subordinates who allegedly received huge sums of money from a rice smuggler from Bulacan province.

Tulfo wrote that an NBI official reportedly received P2 million while his subordinates got P500,00 each after they inspected a warehouse full of rice in Bulacan.

Rojas, in a letter to the Inquirer columnist, said an investigation would be conducted as he promised to file charges “if evidence warrants.”

“We are expecting results of the investigation within the week,” NBI spokesperson Cecilo Zamora told reporters Tuesday. Nancy C. Carvajal