Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Wednesday said he would leave it up to the National Bureau of Investigation to thoroughly investigate circumstances surrounding the mysterious death of NBI’s Counter-Terror Division chief Raoul Manguerra on Tuesday.
Guevarra expressed sadness over Manguerra’s death, saying that it was a major loss to the Department of Justice and the NBI.
“I’d rather that the NBI make the public statement after they have exhaustively examined all possible angles. But one thing sure, the DOJ and the NBI suffered another major loss,” Guevarra said in a text message.
“Chief Manguera was the head of the anti-terrorist division of the NBI that was responsible for the arrest of scores of Abu Sayyaf fighters throughout the country, including in Metro Manila,” he added.
NBI Deputy Director Ferdinand Lavin also said the bureau is mourning the death of Manguerra.
“The NBI is in a deep state of mourning. We condole with the family, relatives and friends of Chief Manguerra,” Lavin said.
Lawyer Maria Rosario Bernardo, Manguerra’s live-in partner, told police investigators that she received a phone call from a personnel of NBI-CTD informing her that the official was rushed to the Manila Doctors Hospital due to sustained gunshot wound in the abdomen and was pronounced dead on arrival.
Investigators from the Manila Police District-Homicide Section tried to investigate the case but were barred from entering the NBI premises as the NBI-Death Investigation Division was already conducting the investigation.