DESPITE the recent involvement of some members of Congress and other high-ranking government officials in graft, plunder and other white-collar crimes, a lawmaker has bravely filed a bill to stop or minimize the scourge.
“There is an urgent need for the State to arrest the wave of high crimes that continued to escalate in magnitude and intensity,” Rep. Erico Aristotle C. Aumentado of the Second District of Bohol said, as he urged the enactment of House Bill (HB) 5304, or the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Reorganization and Modernization Act.
The measure is an urgent response to arrest the wave of criminality involving public funds and the policy of the State to promote and maintain a modern, competent and highly trained investigative body, functionally integrated and national in scope.
White-collar crimes, such as those that rose from the multibillion-peso allocations of pork-barrel funds, public-works budgets and rampant smuggling of dutiable items, are far more destructive to the economy than street crimes combined in terms of money lost to thieves and fraudsters.
“Law enforcement does not seem able nor capable to deliver and respond fast enough or good enough,” Aumentado lamented.
He recalled that a version of his bill was adopted by both the Senate and the House of Representatives during the previous Congress, but was, unfortunately, overtaken by the adjournment without the bicameral conference action being ratified.
“It is difficult to imagine how law enforcement can truly be efficient and effective if its growth and expansion are stifled by age-old organizational system and procedures, and chained by too much financial restriction,” the Bohol lawmaker pointed out.
The Committee on Justice, to which the Aumentado bill has been referred to, is also in receipt earlier of a similar bill, HB 4556, authored by Rep. Ann K. Hofer of the Second District of Zamboanga Sibugay.
“Reorganization, modernization and expansion of the NBI is long overdue,” Aumentado said.
The equivalent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States, “the NBI is passionately eager to face the challenges of the present and the approaching millennium, but it needs to be adequately equipped in terms of developed human resources, modern equipment and facilities, and necessary logistics for mobilization,” he said.
He added that the proposed statute would pave the way for the NBI to reorganize and modernize, and provide the agency the much-needed capability to successfully address the “high-tech” level at which criminals pursue their “trade.”
“The NBI vision is to be capable of getting results at the flick of a finger; to be capable of responding quickly to the call to action of the people—all the time,” Aumentado argued.
The lawmaker said that the latest killings of members of the media, judges, elective officials and other government officials have caught the attention of international organizations and the concerned sectors of the country on the government’s inability to solve high or white-collar crimes.
The NBI, in the proposed law, will implement a modernization program geared toward the acquisition of state-of-the-art investigative and intelligence equipment, and the establishment of forensic and scientific laboratories, including the provision for training of personnel.
The investigative and noninvestigative staff of the NBI will also be increased and their positions upgraded to adequately meet the increasing demands of a modern investigative and detective work.
Accordingly, the NBI will establish a regional office in every region and a suboffice in every province, to be headed by a regional director and head agent, respectively. Field offices in congressional districts will, likewise, be established, in coordination with the regional offices.
If enacted into law, the present setup of the NBI will be reorganized into the Office of the Director, Office of the Deputy Director for Administration and Office of the Deputy Director for Operations, Office of the Assistant Directors for Investigation Service, Intelligence Service, Comptroller Service, Internal Audit Service, Forensic and Scientific Research Services, Legal Service, and Information and Communications Technology Service. Each of the services will be composed of the necessary divisions and sections.
The funds required for the implementation of the proposed Act, including employee benefits, shall be taken from: 1) all collections from NBI clearance and certified fees; 2) all Service incomes from training, DNA, drug tests, confirmatory and neuro tests and the like; 3) seizures; 4) other miscellaneous incomes; and 5) appropriations by Congress, as maybe necessary.
Under the bill, all incumbent personnel will continue in office and perform their duties, as such as the designated deputy director will continue in office as deputy director and the incumbent assistant directors will assume as assistant directors of their respective or equivalent services.
Incumbent special investigators will be deemed regular agents, provided they meet the qualifications set forth under the proposed Act within two years from its effectivity.
To reach the writer, e-mail cecilio.arillo@gmail.com