Custom’s Lim considered for NBI post 

Retired Army general Danilo Lim, currently Customs deputy commissioner for intelligence, on Friday revealed that he had earlier been considered as among those who could succeed dismissed National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) director Magtanggol Gatdula.

 

In a chance interview with reporters at the Department of Justice office in Manila, Lim said the invitation came from Justice Secretary Leila de Lima during a meeting several weeks ago, way before the Palace relieved Gatdula from his post for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping and extortion of a Japanese woman last year. The sacking of Gatdula was announced Thursday.

 

Lim said he dropped by the DOJ to get updates on several Customs-related cases, as well as the murder case of Palawan-based environmentalist and radio broadcaster Gerry Ortega.

 

Lim also stressed that he never attempted to apply as NBI director, nor did he write to any official to consider him as Gatdula's replacement.

 

But asked if he was willing to accept an appointment at the NBI, the former chief of the elite Army Scout Rangers said: "Sundalo tayo. Team player tayo. Kung ano man ang posisyon o trabahong ibibigay sa atin ay susunod tayo."

 

He claimed that his background in the military and in the Customs bureau was "not too different" from what is required at the NBI and could help him should he be appointed as director.

 

"May relasyon naman ang mga trabaho kong iyan... Kaya hindi naman bagung-bago itong [sa NBI kung sakali]," Lim said.

Offer confirmed  

Meanwhile, Justice Undersecretary Francsico Baraan III confirmed the offer to Lim, but insisted that no one has officially applied for the post as of this time.

 

"It should be clarified that nobody's applying for the position, especially Gen. Lim... although nababanggit ang pangalan niya. Naaalala ko sa isang meeting na sabi ni Secretary that he [Lim] might be considered to be in the NBI but that was a long time ago," Baraan said.

 

The DOJ official also said that De Lima has yet to come up with a shortlist of nominees as new NBI director. Baraan said De Lima had promised to let him and other Justice officials know first before submitting the shortlist to Malacañang. The NBI is an attached agency of the DOJ. 

 

Lim is a retired brigadier general who was imprisoned for four years due to rebellion charges and attempted coup d'etat against the Arroyo administation in 2006. He sought a Senate seek during the May 2010 elections as a guest candidate of the Liberal Party but lost.  In March 2011, he applied for amnesty. His application was approved May that same year. Incidentally, Lim was then a junior officer when he took part in the 1989 December coup against the presidency of Corazon Aquino, the late mother of President Benigno Aquino III. After the military rebels signed a peace pact with the government in 1995, Lim was reinstated in the military. — Mark Merueñas/PSS/RSJ, GMA News