NBI pays tribute to top agent

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) paid tribute on Friday to a former regional director of its National Capital Region Division (NCRD) who was responsible in solving many high profile cases.

The body of the 67-year-old lawyer Salvador "Buddy" Ranin was brought to the NBI chapel to give a chance to former colleagues to pay their last respects to the late bureau official.

Ranin was visiting his daughter in New York when he died of kidney organ failure and other complications last Dec. 6. His remains arrived in Manila last Thursday, Dec. 14 and was immediately brought to the NBI head office.

"Attorney Ranin was good in conducting intelligence gathering and he was very smart," Special Investigator Federico Criste who served under the late NBI regional director.

Among the celebrated cases handled by Ranin was the killing of Leonardo Manicio Sr., more popularly known as Nardong Putik.

Ranin, along with former NBI Director Epimaco Velasco, was commended by the late President Ferdinand Marcos for the killing of Nardong Putik who was then dubbed as the most wanted criminal in the country in the 1970s.

Manicio was a known gangster who reportedly became famous because of his ability to elude numerous ambushes and gunfights because of his amulet.

Ranin also handled the murder of trade union leader Rolando Olalia. He investigated Gilbert Galicia, who later became a state witness and identified the members of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) who were believed responsible for crime.

Another case he solved was the ambush of Nemesio Prudente, then president of the Polytechnic University of the Philipppines, near the school campus in Sta. Mesa, Manila. Prudente survived the ambush.

The NBI official arrested several Manila policemen who were convicted of the frustrated murder of Prudente who earned the ire of some policemen because of his alleged links to leftist rebels.

Ranin is survived by his wife Yolanda, who also previously served as the NBI’s Records Division chief, two children Maria Concepcion and Roland and their respective families.

Ranin was born on Sept. 28, 1939 and finished the Bachelor of Laws course at the Manuel L. Quezon University. He passed the Bar in 1962 and entered the NBI as Agent 1 on May 20, 1964. He retired on Sept. 28, 2004 when he reached the mandatory age of 65.

His remains were transferred to the Loyola Memorial Chapel in Guadalupe, Makati City yesterday afternoon. His interment has been set today at 2 p.m. at the Holy Cross Memorial Park, Novaliches, Quezon City. – Evelyn Macairan