DOJ: People linked to flood control mess can't be barred from leaving PH

Prosecutor General Richard Fadullon said Friday individuals implicated in the flood control scandal cannot be prohibited from leaving the Philippines as court cases have yet to be filed against them. 

Fadullon said this during the hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee when asked by Senator Erwin Tulfo of the government's plan to prevent the personalities allegedly involved in the controversy from evading accountability amid the investigations.

"I believe that while we want all of these personalities who are involved or mentioned in the investigations to just stay in the country during the course of the investigations, we cannot at this time, Mister Chair, prevent them from traveling because what we can only issue, as far as the Department of Justice [is concerned], is a lookout bulletin," the prosecutor general said.

He explained that a lookout bulletin would only check the records of the passengers who would want to leave the country, but it would not prevent them from actually doing so. 

"There is no legal impediment for them to leave because it would be violative of their constitutional right," Fadullon said. 

To address this, he suggested that the filing of the cases against certain individuals be expedited so that their passports would be canceled.

He said investigating bodies in the Executive branch, specifically the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), may push to hold or cancel their passports once cases have been filed. 

"The only solution that I can find for this particular predicament, Mister Chair, is for us to fast-track the filing of the cases or for cases to be fast-tracked insofar as investigations are concerned before the Office of the Secretary of Justice and before the Office of the Ombudsman," Fadullon said.

"And then and only then, once these cases are filed in court and warrants are issued, can we move for the cancellation of the passports," he continued. — VDV, GMA Integrated News