THE National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)-Davao arrested two NBI clearance fixers and one illegal recruiter in an entrapment operation Wednesday, January 4.
Acting NBI Southern Mindanao Regional Director Arnold Rosales said in an interview Wednesday that they were able to apprehend two fixers identified as Jocelyn Balagat, 51, also known as "Bibi", and Ralp Cadayona, 19, who entertained an NBI official, who was pretending to be a client needing NBI clearance.
Rosales said the entrapment operation happened early in the morning near their Bajada office.
The acting buyer was entertained by Balagat and the latter agreed to pay a fee for the immediate release of his NBI clearance.
Balagat allegedly asked for P350 for the transaction, P60 for encoding and P290 for the clearance, when actually the legitimate processing fee will only cost one applicant P115.
The two later proceeded to an internet cafe. The arrest was made as soon as Cadayona, who was the encoder in the internet cafe, received the amount from Balagat.
The two will face charges of the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007.
Rosales said they will also file charges to the owner of the internet cafe whose identity was not revealed, adding that they intend to confiscate the permit of the internet cafe but the establishment was immediately closed down by the owner.
Rosales also said this is not the first time that they have arrested fixers as they have been receiving many complaints.
Aside from the fixers, the NBI operatives also arrested Jocelyn Marial who allegedly recruited people for jobs in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia.
Rosales said that Marial will face the charges of Large Scale Illegal Recruitment.
The authorities, meanwhile, warned people from fixers saying that they have not hired employees to conduct transactions outside their office.
The NBI office, Rosales said, is now temporarily located at Magsaysay Park, to avoid people from being duped that transactions can still be made in the Bajada area.
Rosales assured there are no fixers inside his office, adding that he monitors all the actions of his employees through eight closed circuit televisions whose output can be seen inside his office. (KVC)