De Lima to NBI: Catch 7 high-profile fugitives

MANILA, Philippines - The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) should intensify its search against seven of the biggest fugitives in the country, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said yesterday.

“What’s the use of filing these cases if the ones who should be held liable, these big shots (are still at large),” De Lima said during the NBI’s 77th anniversary celebration. The NBI is the Department of Justice’s law enforcement arm.

She was referring to high-profile fugitives former police colonel Cezar Mancao II; retired military general Jovito Palparan; former Palawan governor Joel Reyes and his brother Coron Mayor Mario Reyes; former Dinagat Island congressman Ruben Ecleo Jr.; Globe Asiatique owner Delfin Lee; and Reynald Lim, the brother of alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles.

Mancao is wanted for the double murder of publicist Bubby Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in 2000. He escaped from the NBI jail last May before the bureau could transfer him to the Manila City Jail.

Palparan, dubbed “the butcher” by political activists, went into hiding after a Malolos trial court ordered his arrest in 2011 in connection with enforced disappearances.

The Reyes brothers allegedly fled the country in March 2012 when a Palawan court ordered their arrest for the murder of environmentalist and broadcaster Gerry Ortega.

Ecleo went into hiding in April 2012 after the Sandiganbayan sentenced him to 31 years in jail for graft. A Cebu City court also sentenced him to life imprisonment for killing his wife.

Lee was ordered arrested in May 2012 for a multibillion-peso housing scam while Lim has a pending arrest warrant for allegedly conniving with Napoles in detaining Benhur Luy – the principal whistleblower in the scam.

De Lima said the failure to account for these people is “frustrating.”

She challenged the NBI’s intelligence services to work “efficiently.”