SOJ Remulla recommends DOJ Undersecretary Andres as acting NBI director
Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla has recommended one of his undersecretaries as acting director of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
Recommended by Remulla was Undersecretary Hermogenes T. Andres to temporarily replace resigned NBI director Jaime Santiago, DOJ Assistant Secretary Jose Dominic Clavano IV said on Monday, Aug. 18.
Clavano said the NBI is under the jurisdiction of the DOJ’s law enforcement cluster which Undersecretary Andres heads.
Thus, it was Remulla's decision to have the head of the law enforcement cluster be appointed as acting NBI director, he also said.
Meanwhile, Clavano assured that the DOJ does not intend to investigate Santiago over allegations of corruption and irregularities at the NBI.
“The director enjoys the trust and confidence of our dear Secretary Remulla. He is a man of principle, he was the man that executed the instructions of the President and the secretary to the very letter at marunong din po mag-update and mag-report (and he knows how to make updates and reports),” he added.
Clavano explained that “we, at the DOJ, have always been and always will be evidence based.”
“It will not warrant an investigation unless there are pieces of evidence that come out that would support the allegations,” he said.
In his resignation letter addressed to the President dated Aug. 15, Santiago said “detractors and those who have sinister interest in my position incessantly make moves to blemish my reputation.”
“I cannot allow this seemingly orchestrated move to blacken my reputation which I molded through the years,” added Santiago, a former policeman, prosecutor and trial court judge.