Senator not surprised by Dacer-Corbito charges
MANILA, Ph
ilippines—After nearly a decade, the alleged brains behind the Dacer-Corbito killings is facing trial and may have to defend himself behind bars.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson has been charged in court with two counts of murder in connection with the killing of top public relations man Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito on Nov. 24, 2000.
A panel of prosecutors from the Department of Justice (DOJ) found credible the affidavit and court testimony of former Senior Supt. Cezar Mancao II, who said it was Lacson, his former boss, who had masterminded the twin murders.
The DOJ panel filed the charges against Lacson at the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Thursday morning.
No bail was recommended.
In a statement issued by Lacson’s office, the senator’s lawyers said the DOJ decision was not surprising because it had “prejudged” their client.
“From the very start, Senator Lacson made it clear that the DOJ, through then Secretary Raul Gonzalez and through acting Secretary Agnes Devanadera, had prejudged the case against him and that the DOJ was going to indict him at any cost to silence him and to punish him for his exposés against the administration,” said Alexander Poblador, one of Lacson’s lawyers.
It was Mancao’s affidavit that had prompted Dacer’s children to ask the DOJ to reopen the investigation and include Lacson among the accused.
In the affidavit he executed on Feb. 13, 2009, at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the United States before he was extradited, Mancao said that about a month before the murders, he heard Lacson tell former Senior Supt. Michael Ray Aquino, Lacson’s then most loyal aide, to have Dacer killed.
At the time, Lacson was the chief of the Philippine National Police and concurrent head of the now defunct elite team Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF).
Aquino was then the operations chief of the PAOCTF, and Mancao, the head of its Task Force Luzon.
‘Nothing political’
The three-member DOJ panel recommended that the case against Lacson be consolidated with the ongoing case being heard by the Manila RTC Branch 18 against 21 accused, including Aquino and former PAOCTF officials and operatives.
“We based our findings on the documents submitted by the family of Dacer, which are mainly those already existing in the case before the RTC Branch 18, plus the Feb. 13, 2009, affidavit executed by Mancao in Florida,” Senior State Prosecutor Peter Ong, the head of the panel, told reporters in a news conference.
Mancao’s claim was corroborated by another former Lacson aide, ex-Senior Supt. Glenn Dumlao, who was also extradited last year from the United States where he, Mancao and Aquino fled before they could be arrested back in 2001.
Dumlao has been discharged as an accused and is now a state witness, and the government has also asked the court to discharge Mancao as an accused. But they are now both covered by the DOJ Witness Protection Program.
The panel dismissed Lacson’s claim that he was under “political persecution” by virtue of his being a member of the opposition.
“There is nothing political in this case,” Ong said. “This is about bringing justice to the victims of a heinous crime and stopping others from committing the same.”
Ong said Lacson’s “defense hinges primarily on persecution, to which we didn’t give consideration. He insisted that the testimony of Mancao is not believable, but we didn’t give weight to it.”
Devanadera had called the news conference to announce that charges had been filed against Lacson. Also present were Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño, Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Richard Fadullon, and the other panel members, State Prosecutors Marmarie Satin-Vivas and Mari Elvira Herrera.
“Senator Lacson is not precluded from availing [himself] of all remedies available to him under the law,” Devanadera said.
No complaint vs Estrada
Although Mancao also implicated former President Joseph Estrada in his affidavit, the DOJ did not include the latter in the preliminary investigation because the Dacer family had yet to file a formal complaint against him.
But Ong quoted the Dacer siblings’ lawyer as saying that they would file a complaint against Estrada.
Asked to comment, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada said he was glad his father was not charged.
“Let justice take its own course. Of course, we are relieved that President Erap was not included. It only shows that they have no evidence against him,” the senator said at a press conference.
He added: “They do not have direct or testimonial evidence against the former President. ... It’s all hearsay. This only shows the wheels of justice [are turning] in this country.”
Senator Estrada also said Lacson would now get his day in court.
“He’s old enough or man enough to defend himself in court. At least, he was given a chance to prove his innocence in court,” Senator Estrada said. read more..
