Local News: New Bacolod City NBI Chief Handpicked to Head Office
NBI Head Agent, Jose Ermie Monsanto has been replaced by a new Bacolod City NBI Chief yesterday after Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Leila de Lima received a slew of complaints from residents in Bacolod City regarding his activities and after the complaint of volunteer Darryl Cadagat, nephew of this writer Edgar Cadagat, related to his having been manhandled for no apparent reason by the NBI chief. The new NBI Chief is Ferdinand Lavin. His bio-data is being prepared for publication.
In a letter to Cadagat, Secretary De Lima informed him that she was acting on the complaint and that an investigation was being conducted by the bureau on the matter.
Information provided by sources in the NBI in Manila who requested they not be named, said, Monsanto would be assigned in Tagum City in Mindanao. The considered founder of Tagum City, which was formerly a town, is the late Dr. Hermenigildo Baloyo, a native of Ilog town and a survivor of the Bataan Death March, The Philippine Air Force’s woman-pilot, Grace Baloyo considered a heroin by the PAF for having diverted her plane after it malfunctioned and could have crashed into a subdivision is also his granddaughter. Grace Baloyo is a niece of NDB columnist and news reporter Edgar Cadagat. Her father is Cadagat’s second cousin.
The Baloyos are from Ilog Town in Negros Occidental.
Supporters of Monsanto had earlier told Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. that Monsanto’s relief of was a wild rumor, but the fact is that, according to Manila sources, it had been already received by Monsanto. The NBI Chief, who held office for only about a year, brought along with him four civilians from Cebu City whom he made errand boys. He had to collect money and goods for their sustenance.
He also tolerated the activities of civilian agents with unsavory reputation. There were also employees, all casual workers, who passed themselves off as regular agents and who were engaged in shenanigans.
Those half-cooked NBI agents were coddled by a less than full-fledged media group.
Journalist Edgar Cadagat has suggested that a cleansing of the local NBI office be done by the new Head Agent, Ferdinand Lavin. The new head agent was handpicked by top officials in Manila.*
