BACOLOD CITY: A sack full of severed body parts was discovered at the front gate of the Bacolod City office of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Friday morning.

Cpt. Gleen Montaño, station commander of Police Station 2, said a job order employee of the NBI-Bacolod found the sack containing a severed left hand, left foot and a pair of ears under an agency vehicle parked outside the NBI office at about 5:45 Friday morning, March 1.

Also found inside the sack is a paper bag with a handwritten note that said, "William De Arca NBI Protector ni Hanz Lopez Drug Lord."

"It is possible that the body parts came from a funeral parlor, they had no bloodstains and were cold, like they came from a freezer," NBI-Bacolod agent in charge Renoir Baldovino said.

Baldovino said it may be designed to divert their attention away from their intensified campaign against illegal gambling in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental.

"Maybe they want to divert the attention from illegal gambling to the alleged involvement of one of the NBI personnel to illegal drugs," Baldovino said.

Baldovino confirmed that de Arca is a special investigator of the agency.

However, Baldovino said that since he took over to head the local office of the NBI in 2017, he has not received information linking any of his personnel, particularly de Arca, to the illegal drug trade.

"Our latest campaigns were against illegal gambling and [were] spearheaded by Special Investigator de Arca," Baldovino said.

He also said their last campaign against illegal drugs was way back in 2021.

He added that it may be aimed to discredit de Arca and the NBI itself.

He also said they have no intelligence report identifying Hanz Lopez as a drug personality.

The recent raids of the NBI of an illegal numbers game operation and an e-sabong outlet in Barangay Granada and Libertad Market involved influential people, he said.

Baldovino added that the investigation is being conducted by Police Station 2 of the Bacolod City Police Office.

We also reported the incident to the NBI regional and national offices, and we are waiting for their actions, he also said.

He said the NBI will increase its security around the office while he will talk to de Arca about increasing his personal security as well.

Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez, meanwhile, said he will leave it to the NBI to "do their job in investigating the body parts case."

"The people who left the body parts appear to be challenging the NBI," the mayor said.

"They chose the wrong city," Benitez added.

Baldovino said the NBI is "accepting the challenge."

"We will continue with our mandate," he said.

The incident on Friday was the third time body parts were dumped in a public place in Bacolod City.

Last year, a severed right hand was found at Purok Riverside, Barangay Bata, and two feet were discovered near a gasoline station at CL Montelibano Avenue in Barangay Villamonte.