Next NBI chief an insider?

At four to one odds, chances are an insider may be the next National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) director.

Sources said four of five nominees submitted by Justice Secretary Artemio Tuquero to the NBI post are insiders.

The four are acting NBI Director Carlos Caabay; Assistant Director Diego Gutierrez; Assistant Deputy Directors Samuel Ong, head of the National Capital Region head; and Carlos Saunar, anti-graft division chief.

The lone outsider is Marikina Judge Reuben de la Cruz, who handled the damage suit filed by tobacco and beer magnate Lucio Tan against former Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Liwayway Vinzons-Chato.

The sources said De la Cruz was recommended by a "high-profile" lawyer close to President Estrada.

The list of nominees was sent to Malacañang last Dec. 28.

Caabay has been acting NBI director since November when then NBI chief Federico Opinion was hospitalized. Opinion subsequently died on Dec. 15.

Caabay is concurrent special investigation service chief, a post held by Opinion and the late NBI Director Santiago Toledo.

Caabay is due for retirement in May.

On the other hand, Gutierrez has long been on the wings for appointment to the top NBI post. But politics stood in his way even as he has been considered the bureau’s number two man in the chain of command.

Ong’s department handled the investigation on the President’s string of mansions being built for the presidential mistresses.

He cleared Mr. Estrada of any complicity in the construction of the controversial mansions. – Jose Aravilla