LUCK is a lady for the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). Though the agency certainly relies on much more than that on the job, they mean that literally when they speak of Anna Labao, a Special Investigator who has been with the agency for 21 years.

Labao was shot to prominence ? again literally ? by despondent fugitive Jason Ivler, whom she recently helped capture, thanks to a keen eye for detail, street smarts, an accurate instinct, and luck.

?Being a woman in this job is a big advantage,? Labao says, ?since women have better investigative skills. We see the smallest details.? And when women really want to find out something, they find ways to do that, she adds.

Her biggest asset, Labao believes, is her ability to charm the toughest of criminals and convince the hardest witnesses to crack and disclose everything they know. This is part of what makes her job continuously challenging, she adds, such that, while even the most enthusiastic worker might feel burned out after two decades, her zeal remains as strong as it was on her first day of work as an upstart agent.

?I?ve often been advised by my peers ? most of whom are regional directors now ? to slow down,? Labao shares. ?Why are you [still] doing that? We?re getting old. Aren?t you fed up with years of field operations?? were some of the questions frequently asked by her colleagues. Strange questions, she counters, because she maintains it?s this aspect of the job that explains her enthusiasm.

?Destiny,? is how Labao describes her entry into the exciting world of law enforcement. A law student at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) then, she happened to meet National Police Commission (Napolcom) lawyer Archimedes Piga when she accompanied her parents to the agency to file a complaint against an abusive police officer. She must have made quite an impression because he immediately offered her a job at the Napolcom ? which she readily accepted.

The job once brought her to a congressional hearing on the merger of the Philippine Constabulary (PC) and the Integrated National Police (INP) under the now Philippine National Police (PNP), where the police top brass were all present. Among them was then General Alfredo Lim, who hired her to be his secretary at the Western Police District (now the Manila Police District).

She moved to the NBI when Lim was appointed director, and got what she considered her big break in 1990, a time when the bureau was losing a lot of its agents because of the dismal salary. ?NBI agents were only paid P5,670 a month then,? Labao discloses.

With General (now Manila Mayor) Lim?s encouragement, she underwent six months of training at the NBI academy in Tagaytay.

?After graduation, I was immediately exposed to the field doing undercover work,? Labao recalls. ?Women agents then were already in their late forties and early fifties, so I was mostly tapped to act as a poseur in operations conducted by the anti-organized crime division (AOCD),? she says. And because, as a young agent, she never resented being at the receiving end of orders, she was constantly given assignments whenever the agency needed a good investigator. ?I?ve always believed that until you have the desire to be a good follower, you cannot be a good leader.?

Her most memorable case was the 1993 murder of Elsa Castillo, eventually dubbed the ?chop-chop lady? because she was killed and dismembered by her deranged former lover, Stephen Mark Whisenhunt, who was subsequently convicted for the brutal crime.

She cracked the case as a 24-year-old investigator with the help of Whisenhunt?s driver, who disclosed everything he knew of the murder.

?It was one of the most sensational cases at the time because the last time that a woman had been murdered and chopped up was in 1967; and it was never solved,? she says, referring to the Lucila Lalu case. She smiles as she recalled having played herself in a bit part in the 1994 film, ?The Elsa Castillo Story: Ang Katotohanan.?

But while she thoroughly enjoyed working as an NBI agent, her family, whom she fondly describes as ?pamilyang sosyalera,? was not too excited over her career choice. They did not like the idea of her constantly surrounded by men in the bureau and having to get down and dirty on the job. Besides, they felt, she did not seem to be ?NBI material, [being] too maarte and sosyal? as a student. ?But I?d like to think that through the years, I made my family proud and gave them honor,? she says.

Death threats and clashes with abusive and errant public figures are part of the territory and she lives with that. What she finds really difficult as an agent, she shares, is the need to disavow her relationship with her three children ? at least in public ? to protect them. One of the sacrifices is having to miss the usual school functions ?because I do not want it known that I am their mother,? she says.

The only place she can safely be with her children is at home, but ?the kids are okay with that because they understand the situation. They know who I am, and I like to think I?m the best mom,? she says, beaming.

Although the Jason Ivler case was no different from others she has handled, she says it was the toughest challenge she has ever faced.

?I was caught at the crossroads. My son was in the hospital at a critical stage of dengue, and I had agents waiting for my signal to launch the search for Ivler in his mother?s house.? She was the only NBI official who believed an informant?s preposterous claim that Ivler was hiding in his own home, and setting up the operations depended on her say-so.

?It was one of those situations when you gamble on a tip at the risk of being charged in court if you end up wrong,? she recalls. At that time, the tipster had said the time was ripe to act so there was no turning back.

Labao recounts that on the evening of Sunday before the arrest, she had promised her son that she would just lead the operation to capture the fugitive and return to his side by Monday morning. It was a promise she wasn?t able to keep as shrapnel from a shattered bullet hit her in the chest near the heart.

?In the emergency room of the hospital, I immediately remembered my promise and worried that my son would not believe I was alright if he saw me on TV.? So she asked to be allowed to call him. ?The doctors refused at first but they relented when I almost screamed at them that my son was in another hospital, at a critical stage of dengue. I assured him I was okay and that I?d be back after I?d gotten myself treated,? Labao narrates. Treatment included transfusion of six bags of blood, and a 45-day wait before surgery to get the metal fragments out of her chest.

After the Ivler episode, she reveals, complainants who come to the NBI often specifically request for her to investigate their cases. She does not refuse any of them but handles the cases depending on their level of urgency.

Labao says she always looks at the NBI operations she leads as high-stakes gambling ? something her colleagues tease her about.

?Sometimes you lose and get slapped with so many cases ? that too is part of the territory. But often the gamble pays off, and you get lucky.? ?