Ex-DOJ USec linked to Bilibid drug trade still abroad

Former Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III. SCREENGRAB FROM PCIJ’s VIDEO

A former ranking official of the Department of Justice (DOJ) linked to the proliferation of illegal drugs in the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) has not yet returned to the Philippines.

Justice Undersecretary Erickson Balmes told reporters that “as per verification with the Bureau of Immigration, former DOJ USec. Francis Baraan III is supposed to return to the Philippines from his US trip on Oct. 23, 2016.”

“To date, he has not returned to the Philippines,” Balmes said.

Baraan, together with former Justice Secretary and now Senator Leila de Lima, former driver Ronnie Palisoc Dayan, former Bureau of Corrections chief Franklin Bucayu, former Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission Executive Director Reginald Villasanta, and De Lima’s former security escort Joenel Sanchez, are covered by the Immigration Lookout Bulletin Order (ILBO) dated Oct. 7.

Baraan was also among the respondents in the criminal complaint filed by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) before the DOJ.

Baraan’s son and namesake, Francis Baraan IV, reiterated that his father flew to the US for medical purpose and not to run away from the controversy.

“My father, former Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III, left the country for health and medical reasons, on August 25, 2016, which is many days before the House of Representatives began its probe on the alleged drug trade in Bilibid, and days before President Duterte himself tagged him in his drug matrix, in one of his press cons,” he said in a statement.

“Leaving the country is not a crime–not if you’re not a fugitive of the law, or a person of interest. At the time of his departure, he had no way of knowing there was going to be a House probe in which he would later be subpoenaed to make an appearance, or that there was going to be a drug matrix in which his name will be tagged by the President himself,” he added.

The younger Baraan said his father no longer wants to comment on any of the allegations raised in public.

“Rest assured, he isn’t running away from anything, or avoiding any possible prosecution. He would face all allegations and issued against him in a real court of law – not in a court of ‘trial by publicity’ – if and when somebody actually isles formal complaint against him,” Francis stressed. JE

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