Exclusive: 5th of a series

OF the three members of Philippine Military Academy (PMA) ‘Makatao’ Class of 1989 who are known to be being groomed for the top Philippine National Police (PNP) post to be vacated by General Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar this coming November 13, Major Gen. Albert Ignatius D. Ferro, currently the director of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group seems to possess all the solid qualities of a top cop.

The only disadvantage he has is his age as he will be retiring on March 5, 2022 when the PNP is in the thick of preparations to ensure a fair and orderly national and local elections in May.

For many PNP officials, Bert Ferro’s age will come in handy as a factor when President Rodrigo Duterte makes his decision to appoint his 7th PNP chief eight months before he leaves the presidency.

Known for being a top intelligence officer who helped brought to an end the career of some of the country’s most wanted terrorists and rebel personalities in the past, his friends, colleagues and peers describe Ferro’s life as a ‘story of perseverance, constant improvement, triumph and patriotism.’

Nevertheless, Ferro was described as having played a significant role in many important historical events that shaped the country and the world.

Let us count some of them:

In 1992, then Captain Ferro of the PNP Intelligence Group (PNP-IG) led efforts to locate the hideout of the once dreaded Alex Boncayao Brigade, a breakaway group of the New People’s Army (NPA) as they were holding Michael Barnes, then the vice-president and general manager of the Philippine Geothermal Incorporated.

Barnes was rescued during a police rescue mission in Las Piñas City which led to the killing of over a dozen of his armed kidnappers.

In February 1993, he was also among those who helped neutralize Alfredo ‘Joey’ de Leon, the leader of the notorious Red Scorpion group involved in daring kidnapping-for-ransom incidents in Luzon particularly in Metro Manila.

As a young PNP-IG officer, he greatly contributed to efforts by the PNP to uncover a 1993 plot by Arab terrorists to bomb the World Trade Center which is said to be the blueprint of the infamous 9/11 attacks in the United States.

As an expert in criminal investigation and anti-terrorism, he exhibited his proficiency when the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation collaborated with the PNP in investigating ‘Project Bojinka,’ a large-scale terror attack planned by Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to blow up 11 American airliners across the Pacific.

“Project Bojinka,’ which could have really been the worst terrorist attack in American history had the terrorists been successful, was discovered on January 6, 1995 when a small chemical fire broke out from the Doña Josefa Apartments in Malate, Manila, drawing the attention of the PNP.

Ferro, then already a Police Major led the investigation which resulted in the recovery of several pipe bombs, bomb-making manuals and a computer containing the details of the ‘Bojinka’ plot.

The shocking information revealed by Ferro and his team to the FBI—which includes the plan of the terrorist to plant virtually undetectable bombs aboard U.S. jumbo jets coming from Manila—was greatly appreciated by the American government.

Then U.S. President Bill Clinton wrote a letter to President Fidel V. Ramos praising the PNP and the group of Maj. Ferro for their role in preventing the airline terror attacks.

Ferro later became a principal witness in the trial of Yousef in the U.S.. His testimony was among those used by the American court to convict Yousef, who was sentenced to a 240-year imprisonment.

That very same investigation led to the discovery of disturbing evidence of a subsequent massive terror plot by Al-Qaeda against the U.S. which is now known as the 9/11/.

The son of a humble couple from Naga City in Camarines Sur, Ferro first took up Bachelor of Science in Engineering at the University of Nueva Caceres before joining the PMA and becoming a member of its ‘Makatao’ Class of 1989.

Ferro trained under the U.S. Navy Special Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Mobile Unit and Maritime Group, and 11 EOD Regiment of the United Kingdom to become an EOD expert.

He also completed a course on Interdicting Terrorist Organizations, a specialized course program in Southeast Asia Regional Centre for Counter-Terrorism and Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program (ATAP), sponsored by the U.S. Department of States and Malaysia.

He also took a short U.S. course on hostage negotiations and a course on Disaster Victim Identification sponsored by the Australian Federal Police.

As a Constabulary 2nd Lieutenant, he got his first baptism of fire in Mindanao when he and then 1st Lieutenant Ronald ‘Bato’ M. dela Rosa, who became a PNP chief and now a senator, led their men in fighting about 250 heavily-armed NPA guerrillas in Marayag, Lupon, Davao Oriental.

He got the Military Merit Medal for that feat. On February 17, 1991, he also led a rescue operation in Bgy. La Purisima in Cagwait, Surigao del Sur which helped save members of the 426th PNP Company pinned down by heavy fire from hundreds of rebels.

Ferro held many significant positions in the PNP. He used to be the chief of the Research and Analysis Branch of the PNP-IG and an intelligence officer of the Joint Task Force on Anti-Kidnapping before joining the famous but now defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force of another former PNP chief, now Sen. Panfilo ‘Ping’ M. Lacson.

In 2005, he became the first chief of the Philippine Bomb Data Center. He also was once a chief of the Police Regional Office 11 Special Operations Group, the regional chief of the CIDG Region 11 and 12 before becoming a Compostela Valley police director in 2014.

JEE ICK JOO SAD CHAPTER IN CAREER

However, a blot in Ferro’s career happened on October 18, 2016 when two of his men from the now defunct PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Group were accused of abducting and murdering Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo a few meters away from the PNP-AIDG headquarters in Camp Crame.

That incident embarrassed the Duterte government in general and the PNP in particular in the eyes of the whole world and prompted then PNP chief, Gen. dela Rosa to order the disbandment of the PNP-AIDG.

However, it was also Gen. dela Rosa who defended his decision to ‘resurrect’ Ferro as director of the PNP Drug Enforcement Group which replaced the PNP-AIDG.

As director of PNP-DEG, the unit became responsible for the arrest of Kerwin Espinosa, then the country’s 2nd most wanted drug personality in Ab Dhabi.

On November 26, 2016, he also led a raid on a mega shabu laboratory in Viract, Catanduanes which was the biggest to have ever been discovered in the country and is estimated to have the capacity to produce 9.6 tons of shabu in a month.

Due to the size of the facility and the number of evidence, it took the raiding team four long days to finish the inventory.

The PNP-DEG under him also seized 180 kilograms of shabu worth P900 million, dismantled a floating shabu lab in Subic and neutralized several drug lords and top drug targets across the country.

Ferro got his 1st-star as director of PNP-DEG where he helped raise the conviction rate of the unit to 74.38 percent.

He later served as Police Regional Office 7 (PRO7) director in Central Visayas for nine months and three weeks before becoming the PNP-CIDG chief last January 30.

Under him, the CIDG last June 16 neutralized Montassir Sabal, a former PNP Special Action Force commando who became a mayor of Talitay, Maguindanao and included in the list of ‘narco-politicians’ by President Duterte.

Maj. Gen. Ferro has been meritoriously promoted thrice for his accomplishments, first from Captain to Major in 1994; from Major to Lieutenant Colonel in 1999; and from Lieutenant Colonel to Colonel in 2008.

(To be concluded: Who is Brigadier General Val de Leon?)