Santiago recalibrates NBI (2)

Barely two months at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Director Jaime Santiago had started to recalibrate the organization by putting into proper perspective the positions at the bureau.

Santiago said he moved to assign personnel based on their educational attainment and background.

“My drive for now is to put the right personnel in the correct position they should be in,” Santiago said.

He said that if one was an engineer, he should be working in the forensic division of the bureau, not in any other office since this was his expertise.

“For example, when I arrived at the NBI I discovered a doctor who was assigned as a comptroller. What was a doctor doing in the comptroller section? So I fixed it by assigning him to forensics and assigned a CPA to his former position,” Santiago said.

By reshuffling personnel, Santiago hopes to squeeze more accomplishments out of them as he goes hard against cybercrime syndicates — one of the marching orders of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

The NBI was given a boost in its anti-crime drive after a delegation of experts from the United Kingdom, India, United States and Korea arrived recently to attend the Asian Criminology Forum which was a three-day affair.

“Last week they arrived in the Philippines for a three-day forum and emphasized the big role of the NBI, especially in transnational crimes. The forensic investigation is really advanced with the technology and methodology,” Santiago said.

With that shared knowledge, Santiago is confident the skills of the NBI personnel would be enhanced.

Wasting no time, Santiago said he initiated Project Cyber Patrolling, which would look for cases and not wait for complaints to reach their office.

“If there was no complaint, we waited. That is a thing of the past now because we are patrolling to look for cybercrime and the personalities involved. So, kami ang naghahanap ng mga loko (we are the ones looking for the crooks),” he said.

Aside from cybercrime, the NBI is vigorously pursuing human trafficking cases.

“We are working and searching. I am looking for a child prostitute and when someone offers P50,000 to P100,000 for a night, we work on that and other scams. So that is now our trend at the NBI. And I tell you, my cybercrime unit and my intelligence unit are very competent. Just like you see in James Bond movies, ganun sila kagaling ang NBI (that’s how good we are at the NBI),” he said.

Santiago expressed his appreciation for the full support given him by Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla.

“One of my marching orders is to enhance the forensic capabilities of the NBI. And DoJ Secretary Boying, he’s very supportive of us,” he said.

Santiago rose through the ranks having started way back in 1979 as a patrolman. In 2001, he was a police captain, then retired early at 41 years of age and joined the Prosecutor’s Office of Manila for three years. He was promoted to MTC judge before becoming an RTC judge.

“So, 21 years in the police, three years as a fiscal, and 17 years as a judge. So now, I was given the chance to head the number-one law enforcement agency, where I hopefully will stay as long as PBBM is president,” he said.