MANILA – Six respondents in first batch of criminal complaints on the multi-billion peso pork barrel scam are no longer in the country, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Thursday.
BI spokesperson Maan Pedro said former Agusan del Sur Rep. Rodolfo Galido Plaza left the country on September 11, the day of the “EDSA Tayo” anti-pork barrel rally.
A former staff of senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Jinggoy Estrada, Ruby Chan Tuason, also left the country on Aug. 26, the day of the “Million People March” in Luneta.
The immigration bureau did not specify the countries where Plaza and Tuason flew off to.
Enrile’s chief of staff, Jessica ‘Gigi’ Reyes, left the Philippines for Macau on August 31.
A staff of Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr., Richard Cambe, was also found by BI to have left the country in May last year.
The BI added that former executive of the Technology Resource Center (TRC) Dennis Cunanan, and head of the Countrywide Agri and Rural Economic and Development Foundation Inc. Mylene Encarnacion, are also no longer in the country.
Thirty-five of the 38 respondents charged in the pork barrel scam are on the BI’s lookout bulletin, which means that any intention to travel should be coordinated with the Department of Justice.
Enrile, Estrada and Revilla were not included in the lookout order because they belong to the legislature, a co-equal of the executive branch. -- Report from Ricky Velasco, dzMM