Ex-Usec Baraan still overseas – DOJ exec

One of the former government officials being linked to the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison has yet to return to the country, a Department of Justice official said Wednesday. 

Citing information from the Bureau of Immigration, Justice Undersecretary Erickson Balmes said former Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III was supposed to head back to the Philippines from the United States on October 23. 

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

Baraan reportedly flew to the US to seek medical treatment, according to his son and namesake, Francis Baraan IV.

Baraan, who was placed under the government's lookout bulletin along with Senator Leila De Lima and seven other people, has been accused of accepting money in exchange for moving inmates around at the penitentiary.

Facing the House probe into the NBP drug mess, high profile inmate Herbert Colanggo said his fellow inmates would usually come up to him whenever they wanted another inmate transferred from one security compound to another, like from the medium to the maximum security compound.

Colanggo added he would be the one to arrange the transfer by getting in touch with Baraan's camp, through the former undersecretary's alleged "bagman," a certain "Susan." 

The former DOJ official has since denied the allegation, saying in a statement in August that it “contradicts the deepest Christian values I hold dear.” — RSJ, GMA News