Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Tuesday said she was giving the Bureau of Immigration (BI) until next week to submit its investigation report on how former fugitive Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson managed to sneak out of the country and then back in while authorities were supposedly looking for him.
“I’m giving them until next week,” De Lima said when asked if she was inclined to give the bureau a deadline.
De Lima has ordered the immigration bureau to look into Lacson’s travels after he suddenly arrived from abroad in March.
Lacson returned to the country after the Court of Appeals granted his petition to be dropped from the list of accused in the double murder of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.
A Manila trial court had issued an arrest warrant against him last year but Lacson outwitted the court by sneaking out of the country weeks ahead of the issuance of the warrant.
The senator was on the run for more than a year. He claimed he was forced to do what he did because he was being persecuted by the then Arroyo administration.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) last week revealed that Lacson’s travel documents were fake. Lacson maintained his papers were authentic but he refused to reveal where he got them.