IT will never happen again.
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Jaime Santiago thus vowed, as he once again apologized for the ‘selfie’ controversy that attended the arrest of dismissed Mayor Alice Guo and announced that the involved personnel have been admonished, reprimanded and are now the subject of investigation by the bureau’s disciplinary board.
Santiago told the ‘MACHRA Balitaan’ forum of the Manila City Hall Reporters’ Association (MACHRA) that he issued a memo warning all personnel from the NBI against a repeat of the incident, saying such will be dealt with accordingly.
Without justifying what happened which he said is clearly wrong and ‘unprofessional,’ Santiago said that the NBI personnel involved have been working day in and out for two weeks to get Guo that they may have been overwhelmed by the success, specially after receiving news that Guo will be given to the Philippine authorities without any condition.
Santiago said he is not privy to the details as to why Indonesian authorities agreed to turn over Guo without asking for anything in return, after it was first reported that they want a ‘swap’ involving an Indonesian national in the country.
Regarding Guo’s behavior, Santiago said that people have different ways of masking their real reaction and smiling constantly may have been her way of handling her stress or frustration over what happened to her.
Meanwhile, Santiago expressed belief that Guo may have gotten help from both foreign and local contacts, saying the NBI is not discounting this possibility and is in fact investigating it.
He said they are now in the process of probing as to who may have helped her (Guo), along with her friends Cassandra Ong and Sheila Guo, so they could escape the Philippines via backdoor.
Santiago also said that they are taking seriously Guo’s claim that she had been receiving death threats and are also conducting a probe into it.
