DoJ twits Palace on Lacson travel papers

“Don’t look at us.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs has disputed Malacañang’s assertion that it was up to the DFA to decide whether or not to file a case in the Department of Justice against Senator Panfilo Lacson for allegedly using a fake travel document to return to the country after a year in hiding abroad.

DFA spokesperson Raul Hernandez said yesterday that “there is really nothing more to say, as far as the DFA is concerned. We already wrote a letter to the DoJ about it.”

“It is now up to the DoJ what to do about it,” Hernandez told the Inquirer.

The other day, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte said Malacañang would “leave that up to the DFA, how they want to pursue that particular matter, because it was the one that came out with the statement. We will have to see what the department’s plan would be.”

“It is entirely up to the Department of Foreign Affairs… if they would coordinate with the Department of Justice,” she added.

Foreign Undersecretary for Administration Rafael Seguis on Thursday said the DFA had done its part in investigating the travel document Lacson used to reenter the country in Cebu after he went on the lam for over a year to evade arrest in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case.

“For the record, I have formally informed (Justice Secretary Leila de Lima) concerning the travel document referred to (in a March 31 letter to the DoJ)… That speaks for itself,” Seguis had said.

Lacson has insisted his travel papers were authentic.

Early last week, Felipe Cariño, executive director of the DFA’s Office of Consular Affairs, told reporters that Lacson’s travel document was fake.

The authentic document bearing the same number was never issued by the DFA-OCA, Cariño said. Jerry E. Esplanada