BI: Some accused may have left Phl

MANILA, Philippines - Some of the 54 accused in the plunder and graft cases filed by the Office of the Ombudsman over the pork barrel fund scam may have left the country, Immigration Commissioner Siegfred Mison revealed yesterday.

Mison said an initial check with bureau records showed “fewer than 10” of the personalities indicted before the Sandiganbayan are possibly no longer in the country.

But he said they have yet to verify if the names found in their database are those of the persons facing criminal cases in the anti-graft court and covered by a hold departure order (HDO).

“We are coordinating with the Sandiganbayan for more details to make sure that the names included in the HDO are the names in our database because there are common names there in the list,” Mison told reporters in the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Among the information needed are the middle names and dates of birth of those in the HDO, he said.

Mison, however, refused to reveal the names but said “less than 10” of them in the list have left the country, based on the BI database.

“They left for different destinations and on different dates. We also could not immediately get the countries they went to because we only record flight numbers and not the destinations,” he said.

Mison said one of the accused that he did not identify left the country some four years ago and has not returned.

He added none of the prominent personalities tried to leave since the filing of cases in the Sandiganbayan last June 6.