National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Officer-in-Charge Director Eric B. Distor has recommended the relief of Assistant Regional Director Victor V. Lorenzo as head of the agency’s Cybercrime Investigation and Assessment Center (NBI-CIAC) due to an alleged anomalous operation.

The other members of the NBI-CIAC have also been recommended for relief pending the results of the investigation on the alleged anomalous operation. The details of the operation were not given by the NBI in its statement.

Neither were the names of the other NBI-CIAC officers recommended for relief were included in the statement.

Efforts to get the reaction or comment of Lorenzo were futile as of press time.

The NBI statement said: “Distor also ordered the review of the existing cybercrime and other operational guidelines and procedures to have a more organized standards and measures as regards the operations being conducted by various operational units of the NBI nationwide.”

It said the review was ordered so that “the NBI will thoroughly re-examine the agency’s guidelines on operations including service of Search Warrant operations, Intelligence operations, and investigation operations.”

It added that Distor also instructed that “all operational authority must come from the Office of the Director and must be under the control and supervision of the said office, with assistance from the respective Deputy Directors.”

Distor then directed all NBI’s regional directors, agents-in-charge, and central office chiefs “to submit to the Office of the Director their performance/accomplishment reports for review,” the statement said.

“Distor emphasized that a re-assessment and revisiting of the Bureau’s operational guidelines also aim to scale down abuse of authority to leave no room for trust and integrity issues and increase professionalism among operatives as well as to further reinforce the Bureau’s ongoing success in combating crimes and illicit activities with maximum efficiency and effectiveness,” it said.

It said that Distor pointed out that the periodic review of operational standards and procedures “is always necessary as part of management's response to increasing role of the NBI to the challenges in a modern and highly technologically advanced society.”

Also, the statement said that Distor stressed that “a continuous cleansing of the Bureau’s personnel will be undertaken so that only the highly skilled, competent and deserving will be retained, and that unprofessionalism will not be tolerated in the NBI.”