MANILA, Philippines - Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and Bureau of Immigration (BI) to verify a report that former Palawan governor Joel Reyes and his brother, Coron Mayor Mario Reyes Jr., have fled to the United States.
“If confirmed to be in the US, we will seek assistance from US authorities through the US-Philippines Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty and extradition treaty,” he said in a text message.
De Lima, however, admitted she has not personally received the intelligence report that came out in the media earlier this week indicating that the Reyes brothers had managed to sneak into the US despite being in the red notices of the Interpol.
“I’m not aware of such reports, but I’m verifying. I have standing instructions to both the NBI and BI for their Interpol and intel units to coordinate with their counterparts in whatever country the Reyeses may have been reported to have fled,” she said.
The Reyeses have been hiding from authorities since the regional trial court in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan ordered their arrest earlier this year to stand trial for the killing of radio broadcaster and environmental advocate Gerry Ortega on Jan. 24 last year, which they allegedly masterminded.
It was earlier reported that the former governor was able to leave the country using a passport under the name of Joseph Lim Pe. He reportedly went to Vietnam, then to Phuket in Thailand, and then back to Vietnam before going to the US.
Last March, the DOJ ordered the indictment of the Reyeses and three others – former Palawan provincial administrator Romeo Serratubias, and the former governor’s aides Arturo Regalado and Valentin Lecias – after a reinvestigation by a second panel of state prosecutors on the complaint filed by Ortega’s wife Patria Gloria.
The DOJ panel junked the Reyeses’ denial and instead upheld the testimony of Rodolfo Edrad Jr., another accused who tagged the two brothers as masterminds of the killing.
The investigating fiscals also cited the admission made by the Reyes brothers in their counter-affidavits that Edrad went to Mayor Reyes’ house in Ayala Alabang, Muntinlupa City to receive money, which they said weakened the respondents’ denial of close association with the gunman who had turned witness for the complainant.
Edrad, in his earlier affidavit, confessed hiring gunman Marlon Recamata and other men and then alleged that Mayor Reyes, on instructions of his brother, gave him P500,000 as reward for the killing of Ortega. The Reyes brothers admitted paying the gunman but only for P5,000.