Arrest NBI ‘Intelcept’ agents

National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Region 6 Director Oscar Embido ordered the arrest of persons posing as civilian agents of the nation’s premier police agency over the weekend.

His directive was focused on the so-called ‘Intelcept’ agents who were reportedly recruited to provide information to the agency and not act as civilian agents.

Embido also recommended to NBI chief Reynaldo Wycoco a formal inquiry into the illegal recruitment of NBI civilian agents in Negros Occidental by the agency’s Internal Affairs Division.

This, Embido said, could pave the way for the agency to initiate administrative and criminal action against those responsible for the illegal recruitment.

This puts into hot water Bacolod NBI head Pedro Diaz, who was reportedly responsible for the recruitment of 300 ‘Intelcept’ agents, who were even equipped with identification cards signed by him.

Embido pointed out that in August 2002, Wycoco had terminated all confidential and civilian NBI agents.

Diaz told Negros mediamen that Intelcept agents are just informants and not civilian agents.

Their case was brought to the media’s attention recently when the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) complained against the attempts of Intelcept agents to secure papers from the commission, which almost led to a heated confrontation.

Embido said the reports he received indicate that Diaz has been utilizing Intelcept members for investigation and raids. That, he stressed, is not sanctioned by the NBI and is illegal.

In short, Intelcept is just a private group that has no legal connection with the agency, Embido stressed.

The puzzling question

The San Carlos city police station pulled a major feat with the arrest of Peter Camed, who sported various aliases and allegedly heads the notorious Acetylene Gang.

The arrest was made possible through the combined efforts of the Bacolod police, the Canlaon City police and the San Carlos cops. Even PNP chief Edgar Aglipay commended the San Carlos police for Camed’s arrest as proof of police persistence in addressing problems.

Aglipay, in his letter of commendation, said it was a manifestation of the competence in police work and devotion to duty and greatly contributed to the common effort of maintaining peace and order in the community.

Despite the media hype about having solved no less than 10 cases of bank and pawnshop robberies in Metro Manila and various parts of the country, Camed walked out of jail Wednesday after posting a P24,000 bail.

Camed, an Igorot, reportedly led a gang composed mostly of Mountain Province residents in victimizing no less than 10 pawnshops and banks nationwide. Their estimated loot, in cash jewelry, now reaches P15 million. The most scandalous was the RCBC bank robbery in Bacolod last year, which reportedly netted for the gang some P1 million in cash.

Bacolod police chief Superintendent Vicente Poneteras said the RCBC is yet to submit to police investigators its inventory of losses.

The gang gained notoriety by using acetylene in gaining entry to banks and pawnshops.

Camed was reportedly identified as one of five men who rented a lodging house at the second floor of a local pawnshop, where they bored a hole to enter to the jewelry store below.

San Carlos police chief Superintendent Ricardo de la Paz admitted that his men were demoralized by Camed’s release last week.

Camed, De la Paz told local mediamen, admitted his participation in the RCBC robbery in July last year in Bacolod City.

The Cebuano Lhuiller Pawnshop in Dumaguete City was also allegedly burglarized by the same gang. Four were arrested post the caper in Dayawan City but the quartet were also released after posting a P300,000 bail.

Camed reportedly named his cohorts as Ricky Dameg, alias Butch Johnson; Julio Begking, alias Kalbo; a certain Sagandoy, and two others identified only as Rene and Denis.

Despite their arrest by police in Zambales, Batangas, Marikina and Caloocan, these men were released from jail after posting P24,000 bail each.

Authorities are also reportedly trying to convince owners of pawnshops victimized by the gang to help in the filing of charges against Camed and company.

The group was also linked to the robbery of the RCBC Savings Bank in Consolacion, Cebu; the Rural Bank of San Remigio, also in Cebu; the Tagbilaran Pawnshop in Bohol, the Molo Pawnshop in Iloilo City; and the Montana Pawnshop in Tanugo City.

But the funny thing is that despite all the hype about what the police have unearthed, so far, the police agencies of the towns and cities where pawnshops and banks had been burglarized by Camed’s Acetylene Gang, appear to have not reported the matter to the San Carlos police.

Well, as they often say, an accomplishment report could end up that way, a major bust insofar as the local community is concerned.

The puzzle, though, is despite the heavy losses purportedly incurred, there have been no takers of the challenge to help the San Carlos police file the corresponding charges against Camed and company.

El Niño warning

Sunday, rains fell in Sagay City in the North and a drizzle fired up hopes of farmers in some parts of Southern Negros Occidental.

It really poured in Sagay City, said Nestor Gabalda, a sugar farmer and businessman.

But the signs are unmistakable. El Niño appears to have been around. For several weeks now, farmlands were drying up.

But Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Maranon said he is withholding action on cloud-seeding because some crops are still being harvested. He vowed, however, to order this measure as it become necessary.

PAGASA warned that the Western Visayas, including Negros Oriental, may experience drought. Rainfall for February was generally way below normal in the Visayas and Mindanao.

Meanwhile, Luis Tongoy, chairman of the Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations (Confed) Negros-Panay chapter, asked Maranon in a formal letter to start early the cloud-seeding operation. He pointed out that sugar farmers, particularly in the South, were already complaining about dry canefields.

Cloud seeding should also be undertaken while there are still rain clouds that could be seeded. Otherwise, it will be futile to look for clouds.

Fire officers, on the other hand, have given civilians some tips to prevent fires.

Negrense sugarmen are particularly vigilant over the rash of fires that ruined large tracts of sugarland recently, particularly in the South. Though some were suspicious, most of these fire incidents were ruled out as the handiwork of Communist rebels.

Still, jitters grip sugarcane farmers.