Gatdula set to be replaced as NBI chief

MANILA, Philippines - Former police general Magtanggol Gatdula will no longer report back to work as Director of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) after his 30-day vacation leave, a Malacañang official revealed yesterday.

The source said Gatdula would not be required to go back to the NBI following his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of a 32-year-old undocumented Japanese woman.

The Palace official noted the recommendations made by a panel from the Department of Justice (DOJ) that Gatdula, along with several others, should be charged with kidnapping and extortion.

Sources also revealed Gatdula may be replaced by retired national police chief Raul Bacalzo Jr., who is also a lawyer.

Police Director Samuel Pagdilao, head of Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), was not picked since he also figured in an alleged kidnapping of a foreign national.

Customs deputy commissioner Danny Lim, a bemedalled military official, reportedly sent feelers to President Aquino if he could possibly be transferred to the NBI, but there have been no reports to that effect so far.

The STAR learned that a DOJ panel headed by Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III has recommended the filing of criminal charges against Gatdula and several others who were implicated in the alleged kidnapping and extortion of Noriyo Ohara.

The fact-finding panel recommended that Gatdula, Assistant Director Medardo de Lemos, Deputy Director Rickson Chiong, security and management division (SMD) head Mario Garcia and his executive officer Jose Odellon Cabillan be charged.

The Baraan panel conducted its discreet probe upon the President’s orders.

The prosecutors established that money indeed changed hands among NBI officials, following the testimony of Ohara’s foster family revealing there were three instances when they delivered the money.

Gatdula, whose one-month leave from office ended Monday, was implicated in the kidnapping after it was found during the investigation of the DOJ panel that he was “seen going down to the SMD office after the alleged payment of ransom was made.”

The report also took note of Cabillan’s testimony in recommending criminal action against the NBI director. It cited direct and circumstantial evidence implicating the other officials.

Garcia and Cabillan were put on “floating status” after the incident.

Ohara flew to the country in 2009 and assumed a Filipino identity to allegedly escape the Japanese Yakuza, which wanted her killed.

From 2009, Ohara stayed with the Marzan family in Bugallon, Pangasinan until SMD agents arrested her for violating immigration laws on Oct. 28, 2011.