DOJ: Records show fugitive businessman Atong Ang still in PH

MANILA – Businessman Charlie “Atong Ang is still in the country, Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Fredderick Vida said on Wednesday.

“Per records of the department, he is still here,” Vida said in a media interview. Vida, however, conceded that Ang might have used the “backdoor” to slip out of the country, given the country’s porous borders.

Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jonvic Remulla on Tuesday said Ang used the backdoor to leave the country, and that this is now under investigation.

Vida said the Bureau of Immigration (BI) informed the DOJ that it has no record of Ang leaving the country.

“So, I cannot confirm that he is already out of the country because we will rely based on what we have on immigration records. Based on immigration records, wala kaming (we have) record that he left,” Vida said.

“We pursue our mandate. Our prosecutors pursue. We see this as challenges, but we do not see this as fatal to the case,” he added.

Ang has been indicted for his alleged part in ordering the abduction of at least 34 sabungeros (cockfighting enthusiasts) from cockpit arenas on suspicion of rigging games.

Julie Patidongan, a whistleblower, claimed he received instructions from a group led by Ang to abduct the sabungeros, whose bodies, he said, were later dumped in the murky waters of Taal Lake, in the province of Batangas.

Benjamin Pulta/PNA