LACSON INDICTED IN DACER CASE / LACSON TAKES CASES TO SC
MANILA, JANUARY 9, 2010 (STAR) By Aurea Calica - Embattled Sen. Panfilo Lacson yesterday urged the Supreme Court (SC) to nullify the charges of murder filed against him by the Department of Justice (DOJ) over the Dacer-Corbito double murder case.Lacson, through his lawyer Alexander Poblador, urged the high court to issue a temporary retraining order (TRO) and enjoin the DOJ from pursuing the case, which he claimed had political undertones.
Poblador filed a petition before the SC claiming the DOJ lacked probable cause in filing the murder complaint against Lacson.
Poblador alleged the government prosecutors exercised grave abuse of discretion in filing the murder case to harass the senator.
According to Poblador, the only apparent basis of the DOJ to indict Lacson was the Feb. 1, 2009 affidavit of former police senior superintendent Cezar Mancao II.
Poblador said the DOJ panel of prosecutors secured the affidavit signed by Mancao while he was in detention in the United States awaiting extradition.
Mancao made the affidavit directly implicating Lacson in the November 2000 murders of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito.
Mancao was a former operative of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) under the operational control of Lacson, then chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
“The allegation of Mancao is false and will not suffice to show conspiracy. At best it would show that Lacson was informed but not part of it,” Poblador said.
Poblador said the DOJ, in conducting the preliminary investigation, took over jurisdiction of the case from the Manila Regional Trial Court where it had been pending since 2001.
“The DOJ had made a prejudgment and is not an impartial body to conduct an investigation,” Poblador pointed out.
Poblador said they had also filed an omnibus motion before the Manila RTC to dismiss the case against Lacson for lack of probable cause.
Alex Avisado, another lawyer for Lacson, claimed it was obvious that Malacañang had influenced the filing of the case to implicate and pin down the senator.
Avisado maintained the evidence against Lacson was weak, including the documents and testimonies of witnesses.
He said it would be difficult for the DOJ to pursue the case even with Malacanang’s interest to harass Lacson.
Avisado claimed they have information that President Arroyo and her allies would still push through with the case even in their last six months in power.
Sen. Jamby Madrigal, for her part, said the murder charges filed against Lacson were politically motivated.
She said the evidence gathered against Lacson were all based on hearsay and “adulterated.”
“This (murder charges against Lacson) is a tragic travesty of justice. This shall, however, be an opportunity for Lacson to finally clear his name of these charges,” Madrigal said.
Face the music
Malacañang also said the charges would give Lacson the opportunity to clear his name over the murders.
Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said Lacson should stop blaming politics for the filing of murder charges against him, and “simply follow the lawful order of things.”
Remonde emphasized the developments in the case only came about because of the available testimony and evidence gathered by the prosecution.
“The accusation of the camp of Sen. Panfilo Lacson that the filing of this case is politically motivated is sounding already like a broken record, a broken record of all the warped CDs of the present,” Remonde said.
What is happening with Lacson right now, Remonde said, is the law catching up with the lawmaker after several decades of supposedly being beyond its reach.
“Perhaps we should also ask: Are they saying this because they could not accept the fact that he has always been in power since martial law? And as such, he felt that... he’s beyond the pale of law?” Remonde said.
Remonde stressed Lacson is still presumed innocent until proven guilty.
He said Lacson should just follow the process and defend himself instead of resorting to squid tactics and claiming political vendetta.
“He (Lacson) should face the music. I mean he should face the case as squarely as people who also faced his accusations,” Remonde said.
Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera also stressed there is nothing political in the filing of charges against Lacson.
Devanadera said the decision of investigating fiscals to file two counts of murder against the senator was “based merely on evidence and testimonies submitted during preliminary investigation and was not in anyway influenced by political considerations.”
“It’s easy to accuse the government of that, but in the end, it will be the evidence that should speak for itself. Our panel of prosecutors, on the basis of evidence, found probable cause for the double murder against Senator Ping Lacson,” she said.
Devanadera also rebutted claims of the lawyers of Lacson that the DOJ resolution charging the senator with the murders is weak and based on conflicting statements of the senator’s two former police subordinates, Mancao and Glenn Dumlao.
“These conflicts were explained by them (Mancao and Dumlao). What is important is how it was explained by the affiants,” she explained.
Lacson has long been critical of the Arroyo administration and consistent in his numerous exposés against the President and her family.
Lacson primarily accused First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo of corruption and President Arroyo of electoral fraud in the 2004 elections. -With Marvin Sy, Edu Punay
FROM MALAYA
Lacson indicted in Dacer murder FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2009 BY EVANGELINE DE VERASEN. Panfilo Lacson was charged yesterday with two counts of murder by the Department of Justice before the Manila regional trial court in connection with the kidnap-slay of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.
A panel of prosecutors led by Senior State Prosecutor Peter Ong found probable cause to charge Lacson based on the positive testimony of witnesses and physical evidence gathered by the NBI.
No bail was recommended,
But the panel said it is up to the court to decide if it will order Lacson’s arrest.
"This is a crime punishable by more than six years, so he cannot invoke immunity," prosecutors said.
Lacson’s lawyers, in a statement, said they were not surprised by the filing of murder charges.
"From the very start, Senator Lacson made it clear that the DOJ, through then Secretary Raul Gonzales 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 exposės against the administration."
Ong said the Manila RTC will decide whether to consolidate the charges with the pending case before Judge Myra Fernandez of the Manila RTC Branch 18, or assign another judge in a separate case.
The court usually has 10 days to decide whether to agree with the finding of probable cause and issue a warrant of arrest, or to dismiss the case.
Among the evidence considered by the panel were testimonies and affidavits of former Police superintendents Cezar Mancao II and Glenn Dumlao, and those of alleged henchmen Willy Cabugin, William Lopez and Alex Loy.
Cabugin, Lopez and Loy admitted they took part in the abduction and burning of bodies of Dacer and Corbito.
Mancao and Dumlao, former members of the now defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force then headed by Lacson as PNP chief, have been enrolled in the DOJ’s Witness Protection Program. The Manila RTC however has yet to rule on the motion of the prosecution to discharge Mancao as respondent.
The DOJ also gave weight to the samples of the charred bodies recovered by the NBI in Cavite, believed to be that of Dacer and Corbito; Dacer’s dental plates; and the post- and ante-mortem report of Dr. Raquel Fortun, a forensic expert.
The prosecutors turned down Lacson’s defense of alibi and cries of political persecution.
Ong said Mancao’s statement that he was present when Lacson supposedly gave the order to kill Dacer is more believable than the senator’s assertion that he was out of the country at that time.
Lacson claimed that he and several other Cabinet officials, including then Trade Secretary Mar Roxas, were part of former President Estrada’s entourage in the United States attending a UN meeting.
But prosecutors pointed out that travel documents presented by Lacson’s camp showed that the US trip was from Sept. 4 to Sept. 13, 2000.
"Thus, it is not improbable that the alleged order of Lacson to another former PAOCTF officer, Michael Ray Aquino, to supposedly kill Dacer, took place in October."
The murder charges were filed based on the complaint filed by Dacer’s daughters – Carina Lim, Sabina Reyes, Emily Hungerford and Amparo Henson – after Mancao executed an affidavit Feb. 14, 2009 during his extradition trial in Florida.
In his affidavit, Mancao tagged Lacson as the mastermind.
Mancao said he was present in the car when Lacson gave his order for Aquino to implement "Operation Delta," referring to Dacer, sometime October 2000.
The Dacer children also sought to file an amended complaint before the DOJ to include Estrada as respondent.
Lacson’s lawyers said he has pending petitions with the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court to enjoin DOJ’s actions.
They said Lacson yesterday filed an omnibus motion with the Manila RTC to consolidate the informations with Criminal Case No. 01-191969 pending before Branch 18 of the Regional Trial Court of Manila, "People vs. Aquino, et al.", and to request that the Court dismiss the case against him for lack of probable cause."
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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