• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Mutilated human body parts, with a note linking a National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) investigator to an alleged drug lord, were found in front of the bureau’s district office on Aguinaldo Street, Bacolod City on Friday (March 1).
A severed left foot and left hand as well as a pair of ears placed inside a sack was discovered by a job order employee of the NBI, said PCapt. Glenn Montaño, chief of Police Station 2 of Bacolod City Police Office.
A note with written words: “William De Arca NBI protector ni Hanz Lopez, Drug Lord”, was also found inside the sack.
Based on the initial police investigation, the human body parts appeared to have been frozen.
This is the fourth incident of human body parts being dumped in various areas in Bacolod since last year.
NBI-Bacolod head Renoir Baldovino said that in his seven years of service in the city, he has not received reports of any involvement of his men, especially De Arca, in the illegal drug trade.
He added that there is no “Hans Lopez” listed as drug personality, based on their records.
Baldovino said that De Arca led the two recent anti-illegal gambling operations, involving Small Town Lottery and e-sabong operations, being financed by an influential person in Barangay Granada and on Libertad Street.
He raised the possibility of an attempt to discredit De Arca and the NBI-Bacolod to divert attention from illegal gambling.
“Maybe they want to divert our attention from illegal gambling to the alleged involvement of one of the NBI personnel in illegal drugs,” he added.
Baldovino said they last conducted an anti-illegal drug operation in 2021.
He added that they are not shaken by the incident and will continue their mandate to fight the proliferation of illegal gambling.
In an interview, Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said that the incident maybe a challenge to the NBI.
Addressing the persons behind the incident, Benitez said “they chose the wrong city”, but he did not elaborate. | GB
