NBI to probe BuCor exec’s slay

MANILA, Philippines — The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has been tasked to conduct a parallel probe into the murder of Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) legal chief Fredric Anthony Santos.

Santos was killed by motorcycle-riding gunmen in a black pickup while waiting for his daughter’s dismissal from school in Barangay Poblacion, Muntinlupa City near the national penitentiary on Wednesday.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra ordered the NBI headed by Director Dante Gierran to conduct a  case build-up on the killing of Santos.

Probers eye GCTA

The Department of Justice is not discounting the possibility that Santos’ murder might be connected with the implementation of the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) for inmates at the New Bilibid Prison, Guevarra said.

“It’s still under investigation, but very likely that it might have something to do with the GCTA issue,” he said.

Santos had testified during the Senate hearing on the GCTA, which was allegedly abused to favor high-value convicts.

Following his testimony in September last year, Santos was among 30 officials ordered suspended for six months by the Office of the Ombudsman over the alleged GCTA for sale scheme. His suspension would have been lifted next month.

Guevarra instructed Gierran to submit a report on the progress of the investigation in 30 days.

Defective videos

The killing of Santos was captured on defective surveillance videos that failed to yield leads on the gunmen, Muntinlupa police chief Col. Hermogenes Cabe said yesterday.

Investigators have yet to identify any person of interest because the school’s closed-circuit television clip was blurred while other CCTV videos at the scene were busted, Cabe said.

“We have not gathered any reliable information from witnesses because of different versions of the killing,” he told reporters. “Honestly speaking, we are facing a blank wall. We are clueless.”

The Muntinlupa police has formed a special task group to look into the killing.

Convicted drug traffickers could have masterminded the murder of Santos, according to former BuCor director-turned-Sen. Ronald dela Rosa.

 Sens. Panfilo Lacson, Richard Gordon and Aquilino Pimentel III called on the Philippine National Police and NBI to leave no stone unturned in solving the murder of Santos. – With Emmanuel Tupas, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Ralph Edwin Villanueva