SUPERINTENDENT Maria Cristina Nobleza, the police officer caught in Bohol along with a suspected Abu Sayyaf bomb maker, had kept mostly to herself and did not submit her personal data to the Philippine National Police Regional Crime Laboratory Office (PNP-RCLO)-Davao.
As a standard procedure, any police personnel who will be transferred to
another unit has to provide information about herself/himself.
But RCLO-Davao Officer-in-charge Police Superintendent Georby Manuel said Nobleza kept putting off the task to email her data.
"Very basic in every personnel na mag-submit ka ng credentials mo when you were assigned in a new unit," he said. "Ako naman kampante (I was just complacent)."
He said it was Nobleza who volunteered to be assigned as deputy chief of the PNP Regional Crime Laboratory Office in Davao last March 2017.
“Para akong nag-aalaga ng ahas. Magkaharap kayo habang kumakain pagkatapos naka-link ka pala sa kalaban (It seemed I was taming a traitor. You dine with her and then you find out that she has links to the enemies),” Manuel said following reports of the evidences found in Nobleza's possession and residences that firm up her connection with the Abu Sayyaf known for kidnapping activities and beheading of hostages.
Nobleza was caught by police in Bohol last April 22 while attempting to rescue Abu Sayyaf members involved in the clashes that killed at least 14 people. She was with her lover, Renierlo "Kudri" Dongon, a suspected bomb expert, when intercepted at a military checkpoint in Clarin, Bohol.
Manuel said Nobleza became his deputy or assistant last March. She was assigned to his office on February 28, but she only reported on March 13.
As his deputy, Nobleza represented Manuel during press conferences and other activities of the office when he was not around.
Manuel said that Nobleza was supposed to be attending a Human Resource Management Officers Course from April 19 to May 17 at the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame when she was arrested. That is why he was surprised upon knowing that she was detained in Bohol after attempting to help and rescue the remaining Abu Sayyaf members.
He said he was attending a conference when Nobleza left Davao City.
Nobleza, being the deputy, was the officer-in-charge (OIC) at that time. But she in turn designated another police officer as OIC without asking permission from Manuel.
Manuel said he was only informed that she will be leaving the city for schooling when he was about to return to Davao.
He added that since she already has a memorandum to attend the course, he had no choice but to grant her request to go to Camp Crame.
“So when I arrived, I did not give her a letter order considering that she already left my office. In the following days, I was surprised when I was informed that my director asked about the whereabouts of my assistant,” Manuel said.
He said he first met Nobleza in 1996 in Camp Crame. Their paths never crossed again until this year when Nobleza volunteered to be assigned as his deputy, as a prerequisite for her promotion. He welcomed Nobleza’s appointment as he needed an assistant.
The job of Nobleza, according to Manuel, is to supervise the forensic services like medico-legal services, firearms identification, fingerprint identification, physical examination and other forensic services. He added that Nobleza is good in examining firearms.
Prior to her assignment in Davao, she was in Camp Crame under the disbanded Anti-Illegal Drug Group. Since she was assigned in Davao, she has been staying at El Bajada Hotel along J.P. Laurel Avenue after refusing to stay in a boarding house offered by the regional crime laboratory.
rManuel had the impression that Nobleza was a presidential awardee, as she has a photo uploaded on Facebook where she was being awarded by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Manuel said he was not sure what that award was for. But he said he saw that photo.
VoxPop searched the photo Manuel was referring to and found it posted in Nobleza's Facebok account dated February 19, 2009. The few photos in her account included those of two children -- a boy and a girl, apparently hers.
VoxPop also found out through the Internet that Nobleza was among the pioneer batch of the 12-month, 41-unit Master in Public Management major in Development and Security conducted by the Development Academy of the Philippines' Graduate School of Public and Development Management in partnership with the Philippine Public Safety College just last August 2016.
The little that is known of Nobleza is that her former husband, Senior Superintendent Alan Nobleza, belongs to class 1991 of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA). He was assigned as the country’s police attaché in Pakistan. They legally separated in 2010.
Nobleza was last seen in the RCLO-Davao premises on April 12 while playing badminton with fellow policewomen.
When she assigned another police officer to take over her place when she hurriedly left, the police officer asked where she was going, and she only jokingly said, “Secret.”
Manuel said he has not seen her alleged lover, Dongon, during her short stint in Davao.
He added that one of the RCLO personnel described Nobleza as "malalim" (pensive) and who does not usually associate with other personnel and would head straight to her hotel after work.
The RCLO personnel also revealed that he once heard Nobleza talking to a person on the phone and when asked, she said it was an officer of the United States army.
Nobleza is set to face administrative and criminal charges, such as obstruction of justice, illegal possession of firearms and disobedience to persons in authority before a Bohol court. She was also relieved from her post pending the investigation on the cases against her.
She and Dongon were transferred from Bohol to Camp Crame, where they have been detained. (VoxPop Davao/VoxPop Philippines)
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