NBI exec sacked over bribe raps

MANILA, Philippines - The Cavite district chief of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) was relieved from his post yesterday pending an investigation into allegations that his office had received bribes from gambling operators and maintainers of other illegal activities.

Cavite provincial prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco confirmed the relief of supervising agent Dominador Villanueva II.

The other day, lawyer Reynaldo Esmeralda, NBI deputy director for technical services, issued a memorandum to NBI Director Nestor Mantaring recommending Villanueva’s relief pending the investigation by the agency’s Internal Affairs Division.

Villanueva was replaced by head agent Norman Decampong, executive officer of the NBI Interpol.

Villanueva told reporters at the NBI headquarters in Manila that he opted for “voluntary relief.”

He, however, denied the allegations raised by Velasco, saying the latter’s source, a certain Peter Garin Ignacio, was tainted.

Velasco claimed that Ignacio was a “collector” of the NBI’s Cavite district office under Villanueva.

Villanueva said he arrested Ignacio and charged him before the Tagaytay City prosecutor’s office with estafa through falsification of public documents in June 2008 for selling fake confidential agent identification cards of the NBI for P1,000 to P2,500 each.

Ignacio is now out on bail, Villanueva said.