In an eight-page complaint lodged before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas on Feb. 28, 2023, Mary Cris Cabalquinto accused the agents of abusing their power when they served a warrant to search Amenic N’ Calajoan Cockpit in Barangay Calajoan, Minglanilla town, Cebu on Sept. 16, 2022.
Cabalquinto accused the NBI 7 agents of “pocketing” around P8.3 million of the firm’s earnings, among other violations.
Cabalquinto, who works as a cashier at the cockpit, also accused the NBI 7 officials of alleged grave misconduct.
The respondents in the complaint are NBI 7 Director Rennan Augustus Oliva; supervising agents Wenceslao Galindez and Donaver Inesin; agents Contessa Lastimoso, Agapito Gierran, Bienvenido Panacean and Niño Rodriguez.
Also included in the complaint are administrative aide Audie Ybiernas, job order employees Erman Mier and Mark Dominique Nadela, and civilian Michael Castro, identified as a “retired police officer.”
SunStar Cebu tried to get the side of NBI 7 officials, but the bureau would not comment until it received a copy of the complaint.
In her complaint, Cabalquinto claimed that during the Sept. 16, 2022 raid, NBI 7 operatives committed several “serious irregularities” such as implementing an illegal search in the firm’s office when the subject of their search was a “container van.”
“Instead, they went to and opened rooms not included in the search warrant, obviously to look for whatever valuables that they can cart away,” Cabalquinto said.
Cabalquinto said she was holding over P8.3 million in cash when NBI 7 operatives came in to raid them. This was composed of P5 million in cash entrusted to her by some individuals and P3.3 million composed of the entry money paid by participants of their 7-Stag Derby that day.
She also alleged that the NBI 7 “operatives and their joiners” who conducted the raid did not use body-worn cameras or alternative recording devices.
“These scenarios and abuses, are the very scenario which could have been prevented and deterred, by the use of body-worn camera or alternative recording devices,” Cabalquinto said.
She also questioned why even NBI 7’s job order employees and a civilian were present at the raid.
Cabalquinto claimed that CCTV cameras installed at their firm recorded footage showing that the NBI 7 operatives were “pocketing” their earnings at the time of the search, instead of searching the “container van” pursuant to an operation against e-sabong.
Lawyer Louie Arma, who represented Cabalquinto, said they have presented the videos to the Ombudsman as part of their evidence.
Arma said that while the NBI 7 earlier reported that they recovered around P2.5 million during the raid, they didn’t disclose that it was P8.3 million.
“The CCTV footage that we obtained from the source that was attached to the complaint came from concealed CCTV cameras. These have very high technology. You wouldn’t suspect there was a CCTV camera because the establishment used miniature ones. And then the CCTV never lies,” Arma said in Cebuano. (BBT / PJB, JKV)