CEBU CITY – Criminal charges were filed against six personnel of a satellite office of the National Bureau of Investigation-Central Visayas (NBI-7) in Lapu-Lapu City after they allegedly defrauded the agency through its first-time job seeker policy. The NBI-7 filed six counts of estafa through falsification of public documents and qualified theft against Trixie Ivy Cartalla, Christelyn Micaros, Gemma Quimat, Billy Jean Omison, Almero Canamo, and Ruwil Lucero. The respondents worked under a private firm contracted to operate NBI’s offsite center located in a mall in Lapu-Lapu. In a statement released on Monday, June 19, the NBI-7 said the six workers were accused of defrauding the NBI of at least P300,000 by falsifying records of individuals ineligible for the Clearance of First Time Job Seekers (FTJS). FTJS is a policy at NBI-7 that allows first-time job seekers to request for an NBI clearance, a pre-employment requisite, free of charge. The NBI usually charges P220 as payment for processing clearances. The NBI-7 said that it received information from its Information and Communication Technology Service that signs of possible fraud in its satellite office in Barangay Ibo, Lapu-Lapu City was detected. A team was  formed by NBI-7 Director Rennan Augustus Oliva to investigate the report. The investigating team secured affidavits from eight witnesses who processed their NBI clearances at the satellite office. The witnesses paid P220 to the respondents, who still labeled them as FTJS clearances even if they were ineligible, NBI-7 said. Investigation further revealed that fraudulent activity had been going on since January 2023. A total of falsified 1,370 FTJS costing P301,400 were processed by the respondents, the NBI-7 said. It was also discovered that the money that came from the fraudulent activity was not deposited to NBI’s official bank account, the NBI-7 added. The six respondents were asked to explain the accusations hurled against them when they were all summoned through a subpoena last June 14. The respondents allegedly all admitted that they got tempted to take advantage of the FTJS clearances because their daily income ranging between P800 and P1,000 was insufficient for their needs, the NBI-7 said. The NBI-7 said additional charges will be filed against the suspects once the judicial affidavits of the remaining 1,364 NBI clearance applicants are completed.