The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI was ordered placed on an “extraordinary alert” Saturday amid rumors that some groups may pring Maguindanao massacre suspect Andal Ampatuan Jr. from his detention cell. Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said that her office received information about a plot to spring the Datu Unsay town mayor from the NBI detention facility. “My instruction was to place the NBI under extraordinary alert level. This is not based just on the information we receive but also on billeting information in hotels near the NBI headquarters,” Devanadera said on government-run dzRB radio. She did not elaborate if the “billeting information” involved the allies of the Ampatuans who had occupied some hotel rooms. Devanadera said they will make sure that Ampatuan Jr. could not escapt and move for the transfer of other suspects in the massacre to a more secure facility, possibly Fort Santo Domingo in Laguna. Other members of the Ampatuan clan are expected to be transferred to Metro Manila if the request to transfer hearing of the rebellion charges against them is approved. Officials at the Manila Police District (MPD) said they have assigned more policemen to guard the vicinity of the NBI. “I ordered men deployed around the NBI headquarters,” MPD head Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Magtibay said in a separate interview on dzRB. Radio dzBB reported early Saturday that the NBI heightened its alert level following the discovery of a map that hinted at an attack on the NBI headquarters and the nearby Supreme Court. NBI Counter-Terrorism Unit head lawyer Ricardo Diaz said the map was found along with a rifle grenade at the Greenhills Shopping Center in San Juan City Sunday night. Diaz said the map marked the NBI and Supreme Court with X, with the numbers “1-31-10,” which officials interpreted to be the possible date of attack - January 31, 2010. He said that, although this could only be a scare tactic to force the transfer of the suspect to another facility, the NBI was not taking chances. Ampatuan Jr. has been detained at the NBI after the massacre of 57 people, including 32 journalists, in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao last Nov. 23. His lawyer has asked the Supreme Court to transfer the case to Cotabato City or Cagayan de Oro, but the court rejected the plea.
