MANILA, Philippines — For once, the President’s spokespersons did not overspeak. Instead, they said only what needed to be said, without explaining or overexplaining but simply stating the plain and unvarnished fact, that the NBI director had to be let go for loss of confidence.

Again, and without overstating their case, the spokespersons now say that what their Boss wants is an NBI director who is “tough and clean.” A redundancy, perhaps, but in a world growing ever denser between the ears, some redundancies are obligatory. A clean officer is a tough order as it is, although what NBI insiders and oldtimers prefer is somebody who is “not a policeman, not a soldier.”

If NBI veterans and alumni don’t trust the PNP and AFP, whom can we trust? In the old days, an NBI agent had to have a law degree to qualify – as if lawyers could save this country! At any rate, the story of how the NBI director got himself in hot water over a P6-million extortion rap would acquire flesh-and-blood reality were the general public to be let in on the background: that the kidnap victim was in Manila to hide from Japanese criminals who had killed her father, that two of the “agents” were security guards, and that she was in detention for all of two months without the guys on top knowing about it.