EDITORIAL — Getting out seems easy

If a story that came out in The New York Times is to be believed, self-confessed Davao Death Squad hitman Edgar Matobato was able to leave the country using fake identity and travel documents.

The Times article, according to a story in Philstar.com, says that Matobato and his family hid in the Philippines for a while under new identities, this before flying out to Dubai, from where they went somewhere else to start a new life.

For those who don’t remember who Matobato is, he was the witness who was presented by Senator Leila de Lima last September 2016 during the Senate investigation into the drug war killings. He testified that then president Rodrigo Duterte ordered killings when he was still Davao City mayor.

All stories must be taken with a grain of salt, but let’s say this one is true, and we mean the Times story, not the Matobato testimony. While the article doesn’t mention when Matobato and his family allegedly left the country, we can only assume it happened either during the previous administration or this one.

And now we have to ask again: Is it really that easy for some people to leave the Philippines under an assumed identity? Even with all the supposed safeguards in place and watchdogs and officials --specifically Immigration officials-- at their posts?

We saw this happen with disgraced Bamban Mayor Alice Guo, then again with former presidential spokesman Harry Roque. Can those who know how to grease the right hands just leave the country as they wish?

Matobato isn’t a wanted fugitive, let’s be clear about this, although we understand how he may have been desperate to leave the country after his damning testimony. We are just pointing out the fact that he was allegedly able to leave the country using fake identity and travel documents.

The Bureau of Immigration said it is going to investigate how this happened. Well, yes. Such an incident does deserve to be looked into. Because even now it seems that our porous borders are being made more porous by some people who know how to get out of the country illegally --or some people who know how they can get others out secretly.