Top NBI official leads manhunt for Binay aide Gerry Limlingan

Finding Gerry Limlingan, the alleged bagman of Vice President Jejomar Binay, has become the No. 1 priority of the National Bureau of Investigation even as the agency’s top official has joined the nationwide manhunt for the fugitive businessman.

NBI director Virgilio Mendez said he has ordered another division to join the search for Binay’s former trusted aide and alleged dummy, who has been on the run since the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee started its inquiry on the Vice President’s supposed corruption activities.

“I am now personally monitoring information and progress of the search and the teams will report to me directly,’’ Mendez told the Inquirer in a phone interview.

He declined to say which division of the NBI had been assigned to track down Limlingan but said another “crack’’ division of the bureau will also be assigned to join the manhunt.

He said previous efforts to locate Limlingan failed to yield substantial results but operations are still in progress.

“We had several leads and operations, but all turned out to be negative. Despite that, the pursuit operations did not stop,’’ Mendez said.

Mendez said the bureau’s regional offices will also be tapped in the search and arrest of Limlingan.

“Efforts will be doubled and intensified to locate him not only to bring him to the Senate but also to ensure his security,” Mendez said.

“We are aware of the importance of his appearance in the Senate hearing and there will be no let up in the search for him,’’ he said.

Mendez said the bureau would also look into the possibility that he may have fled the country even if a report of the Bureau of Immigration said he last went abroad in 2003.

“Although there was no record of him leaving the country, the possibility of him having fled the country is there through the back channels. All of these will be considered and looked into,’’ he said.

During the Senate hearing on Thursday, Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Aquilino Pimentel III urged Mendez to intensify the NBI’s efforts to locate the whereabouts of the “missing” Binay aide.

Limlingan’s younger brother and noted businessman Victor, one of the resource persons in the hearing, told the Senate subcommittee that he has no knowledge on his brother’s whereabouts and whether he is still alive.

Limlingan has been ordered arrested by the Senate for ignoring summonses to the subcommittee hearing but has managed to continue to elude search teams from the Senate sergeant at arms and the NBI.

During the 23rd hearing of the panel on Thursday, which was also the first anniversary of the probe, Pimentel said the hearings could not be terminated because of failure of Limlingan to appear before the subcommittee.

“Before we end this investigation and since Vice President Binay does not want to face the Senate, we will continue the search for Mr. Gerry Limlingan and we should turn this into a national manhunt,” he said.

Former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado, who turned Binay whistle-blower, tagged Limlingan as a henchman and bagman of the Vice President when the latter was still Makati mayor.

Mercado said during Senate hearings that Limlingan fronted for Binay in businesses and properties that are not declared in the Vice President’s statement of assets and liabilities.