NBI may now check Mabanta’s gadgets for other ‘extort’ ops

The National Bureau of Investigation can now retrieve information such as text messages, call logs, videos, and photos from gadgets seized from Peanut Gallery Media Network (PGMN) founder Franco Mabanta and his four associates in connection with an alleged extortion attempt on former Speaker Martin Romualdez.

NBI Director Melvin Matibag said on Tuesday the Regional Trial Court of Pasig City approved the bureau’s cybercrime warrant application on May 15, allowing investigators to examine the contents of the confiscated electronic devices.

‘Senators, congressmen…’

Speaking at a Manila City Hall news forum, he said the bureau asked the court for the warrant partly to determine whether other individuals had been victimized or targeted by the group’s scheme.

“We will see who he talked to—senators, congressmen, mayors, governors, personalities, whoever,” the NBI official said.

Mabanta and four other PGMN associates were arrested on May 5 on a complaint filed by Romualdez, who alleged that the group demanded P350 million, later reduced to P300 million, in exchange for not releasing a 90-minute “exposé video” purportedly linking him to corruption in the House of Representatives.

They are now facing charges of robbery extortion and violations of the Cybercrime Prevention Act. They were allowed to post bail on May 10.

“So the people he [Mabanta] talked to, whoever the personalities he talked to, we will have access to that, we will know, Matibag said.

Definite answers

The forensic examination gadgets would also help the bureau verify reports about other individuals contacted by social media personality, he said, adding:

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“So, even the rumors that he talked to this and that person, we will have definite answers on that. That’s where we will see communications and call logs and videos and pictures on the phone of Franco Mabanta and his associates.”

Shortly after Mabanta’s arrest, Matibag said over 200 individuals, including government officials and private personalities, reached out to authorities to claim they experienced similar harassment and extortion attempts allegedly linked to Mabanta’s group.

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