President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has picked Medardo de Lemos as the new director of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Malacañang announced on Monday.
Being the bureau’s most senior officer as long-time NBI Assistant Director, Press Secretary Trixie Cruz Angeles said de Lemos’s appointment as NBI chief “is a strong indication” of the President’s “commitment to strengthening the system of meritocracy in the promotion, placement and hiring of government personnel.”
A lawyer by profession, de Lemos has been serving in the country’s primary investigation body for over 37 years.
He was earlier designated NBI officer-in-charge (OIC) by Department Justice (DoJ) Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla.
He succeeded Eric Distor, who was appointed by former President Rodrigo Duterte in March this year.
De Lemos graduated from the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law in 1983 and from the NBI Academy in Tagaytay in 1985.
He obtained a Career Executive Service Officer Rank (CESO) in 2003.
According to Angeles, part of De Lemos’ accomplishments as an NBI official is the crafting of the bureau’s Rules of Engagement which defined the policy on the use of deadly force in its enforcement operations.
He is also a regular lecturer at the Philippine Judicial Academy on the use of deadly force in the security training for Judges.
Angeles said the biggest accomplishment of de Lemos in the bureau was the capture of the notorious Alvin Flores robbery group in 2009 when he was still regional director of the NBI’s Central Visayas Regional Office.
The newly-appointed NBI director was also once designated as the agency’s OIC in 2013 for four months under then-Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.
This was after former NBI chief Nonnatus Rojas resigned in September 2013.
An attached agency of the DoJ, the NBI is mandated to investigate or assist in the investigation of major crimes in the country.