No personal data of Nobleza

POLICE Supt. Maria Cristina Nobleza, the high-ranking regional police officer arrested while apparently trying to rescue members of the terrorist Abu Sayyaf group in Bohol last week kept mostly to herself and did not submit her personal data to the Philippine National Police Regional Crime Laboratory Office (RCLO) 11, as is the standard procedure upon the transfer of any police personnel, when she became the deputy chief of the Crime Lab 11 just last March 2017.

Also, it was Nobleza who volunteered to be assigned as deputy, which

the overworked Crime Lab 11 welcomed.

“Para akong nag-aalaga ng ahas. Magkaharap kayo habang kumakain pagkatapos naka-link ka pala sa kalaban,” said Regional Crime Laboratory Office (RCLO 11) Officer-in-charge Police Superintendent Georby C. Manuel following reports of the evidences found in Nobleza's possession and residences that firm up her connection with the bandit group known for kidnapping activities and beheading of hostages.

Manuel said it was Nobleza who volunteered to be assigned as a deputy at the Crime Lab 11.

According to him, Nobleza was assigned to his office last February 28, 2017, but she only reported last March 13, 2017. Since that day, she became his deputy or assistant. As his deputy, he said, she represented him during press conferences and other activities of the office when he was not around.

Nobleza, he said, was supposed to be attending a Human Resource Management Officers Course from April 19 to May 17 at the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters at Camp Crame when she was arrested. That is why he was surprised upon knowing that Nobleza was detained in Bohol after attempting to help and rescue the remaining ASG members.

The RCLO 11 chief said that he was attending a conference when Nobleza left the city. Nobleza, being the deputy, was the OIC at the time. In turn, she designated another police officer as OIC without asking permission from Manuel. He was only informed that she will be leaving the city for schooling when he was still on his way back. But since she already has a memorandum for that course, then 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.

Manuel first met Nobleza in 1996 in Camp Crame. Their paths never crossed again until this year when Nobleza volunteered to be assigned here as her deputy regional chief as a prerequisite for her promotion. He welcomed Nobleza’s appointment as he needed an assistant.

The job of Nobleza, according to him, 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 the Davao region, she was in Camp Crame under the disbanded AntiIllegal Drug Group. Since she was assigned here, she has been staying at El Bajada Hotel along J.P. Laurel Avenue after refusing to stay in a boarding house offered by the RCLO 11.

When asked about the profile of Nobleza, Manuel could not provide her personal data because he revealed that Nobleza kept putting off the task to email her data, which is a basic protocol upon shifting to a new assignment.

“Ako naman kampante," he said. Manuel had the impression that Nobleza was a presidential awardee as the female police officer has a photo in her social media account where she was being awarded by erstwhile President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Manuel said. He was not sure what that award was for. But he said he saw that photo. Sun.Star searched this in Facebook and did find the photo Manuel was referring to 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.

The only other information about Nobleza that Sun.Star found on the internet is that she was among the pioneer batch of the 12-month, 41-unit Master in Public Management major in Development and Security condicted 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.

"Very basic in every personnel na mag submit ka ng credentials mo when you were assigned in a new unit,” he said.

The little that is known of Nobleza is that her former husband Senior Superintendent Alan Nobleza belong 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 11 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 Reneer Lou Dongon during her short stint here.

From what he gathered from the other RCLO 11 personnel, when they met to consolidate information about Nobleza, one of his personnel said that he described the deputy as pensive (malalim) and who does not usually associate with other personnel and would head straight to her hotel after work.

Another thing, his personnel also revealed that he once heard Nobleza talking to a person on the phone and when asked, she said that it was an officer of United States (US) army.