Perhaps, it’s just a case of misunderstanding.
“Six National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents are facing investigation for reportedly raiding an Iranian diplomat’s condominium unit at the Salcedo Park Tower 1 in Makati City during an anti-money laundering operation on Dec 3,” reports Jaime Laude in The Philippine Star.
On Dec 6, the Iranian embassy sent a note verbale to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to protest the raid on the unit of its third secretary, Hossein Nadi. This, in turn, prompted DFA intelligence and security office head Amable Tolentino to direct the Southern Police District to launch an investigation into the case involving agents from the NBI’s Cybercrime Division.
According to the Iranian embassy’s account “Nadi and his family were watching television when agents barged into the unit, terrifying its occupants.”
The NBI agents were actually there that day to conduct a raid on condo units that were suspected of being money laundering hotspots. However, Nadi’s unit was not among those identified by the search warrants.
Moreover, the condo’s security personnel said that “the NBI agents were not accompanied by barangay officials or police officers” when they conducted the search of Nadi’s unit, as well as other units in the building. Procedure dictates that barangay officials and police officers are present “to witness the implementation of the search warrant and ensure that no unit owners or tenant will be arbitrarily arrested (and) no other units not specified in the warrant may be subject of erroneous raid.”
Photo by user JoRitchChT via WikiCommons
