The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) yesterday filed a criminal complaint for "crimes involving destruction" against City Councilor Plaridel C. Nava, SPO2 Rex de los Reyes and Gilbert "Ka Rambo" Monteverde for allegedly plotting and carrying out a grenade attack against the Bali Hotel on Sept. 5 last year.

In a 17-page complaint before the Iloilo City Prosecutor's Office, NBI regional director Atty. Elfren Meneses Jr. said there is "probable cause" to charge Nava as principal by inducement as the alleged mastermind in the grenade blast that damaged a portion of the Bali Hotel owned by businessman/journalist Rommel S. Ynion while the other two are liable as principals by direct participation.

Meneses said the three should be charged and prosecuted for violation of Art. 324 of the Revised Penal Code in what the NBI described as a conspiracy to commit a crime.

The NBI gave credence to the testimony of whistle-blower Mercedes "Ging Ging" Nava, a first cousin of respondent Nava, who claimed having personally heard the latter give instructions to De los Reyes and Monteverde in the evening of Sept. 4, 2011 at a place in Mandurriao she described as a "hide-out".

Ms. Nava told investigators that she heard her first cousin "threaten his father Barangay Captain Sumakwel Nava that he will do something to Bali Hotel last Sept. 4, 2011". She also heard the respondents talk about the type of grenade to be used in the attack, the NBI complaint said.

The NBI also submitted an affidavit of businesswoman Joy Legarda who validated the closeness and intimacy between the cousins Nava for several years until they quarreled sometime in November last year.

Former Pali-Benedicto, Mandurriao barangay captain Ramonito "Moret" Gratis also came forward and told the NBI that he personally saw, and recognized, De los Reyes and Monteverde as the perpetrators of the crime as he was in the vicinity when it happened.

A trisikad driver, Michael Febre, also testified that he saw the actual tossing of a "thing" which rolled and then exploded beside the hotel building by a person he described as about the same build as him, but taller. The attackers were "riding in tandem", he said.

The NBI noted that both Febre and Gratis used his left hand to lob the hand grenade.

Two security guards who were on duty at the time of the grenade blast told investigators "they could have been dead or seriously injured due to the grenade explosion if not for sheer luck", the NBI said.

"Through positive identification by a witness and corroborated by circumstantial evidence adduced from other witnesses, the NBI has established that De los Reyes and Monteverde are co-conspirators and are the principals by direct participation in the instant case," the NBI said.

In implicating Nava, the NBI relied on the testimony of Mercedes to show that he allegedly masterminded the crime and had the motive "in doing such dastardly act".

"Clearly, subjects De los Reyes and Monteverde could not have committed the crime without subject Nava's instruction considering that both had no motive to do the criminal act," the NBI said.

The NBI said that "the utterances of subject Nava was (sic) of such a nature and uttered in such as manner as to become the determining cause of the crime, and that such inducement was uttered with the intention of producing the result".

The NBI alleged that Nava had "moral ascendancy" over De los Reyes and Monteverde considering that both of them serve as bodyguards and constant companions to him. "The same relationship is akin to master-servant relationship or that of a superior to an interior," the NBI said.

The NBI produced certifications to show that Nava is the lawyer of De los Reyes in two criminal cases pending against him before the Regional Trial Court Branch 13 in Culasi, Antique. De los Reyes was charged with illegal possession of high-powered firearms, ammunition and explosives after being apprehended at a police checkpoint in Pandan, Antique three years ago, the NBI added.

Nava is also the counsel of De los Reyes in a criminal case for robbery in band with the use of unlicensed firearm in the Aklan Regional Trial Court. The robbery incident took place just hours before De los Reyes, his brother Julius and ex-policemen Jeremiah Pilapil were accosted at the checkpoint.*