NBI: LACSON LAST SEEN IN
CHINA / DRILON LOBBYING FOR CARPIO AS SC CHIEF
[PHOTO
AT LEFT - INTERPOL WEBSITE BEARS INFO ON SEN. PANFILO LACSON]
MANILA, FEBRUARY 13, 2010 (STAR) By Sandy Araneta - Fugitive Sen. Panfilo Lacson, tagged as the mastermind in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case, was seen in China bound for Macau sometime last January, a source from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said yesterday.
“Panfilo Lacson DOB (date of birth) 060148, Passport No. DP0001469 left Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province, China on Jan. 18 for Macau by car,” a text message from the NBI source yesterday read.
It was not known, however, if Lacson was still in Macau.
No other details were given by the source.
NBI spokesman Edward Villarta and NBI Interpol Division chief Claro de Castro Jr., however, said they have yet to verify the information.
“We are just waiting for the verification. There is no information yet where Lacson is. All the Interpol member countries are alerted. We are still waiting,” said De Castro.
“The last information we received (is that) he was in Hong Kong on Jan. 5. I just learned about that information (that he left China for Macau) now,” added De Castro.
De Castro said Lacson’s warrant of arrest only came out last February, and that was the only time Interpol member countries checked on the records of his entry into their countries.
“It is easier for us to look for him in the Philippines than with Interpol member countries abroad since it would also depend on their (counterparts’) cooperation. Finding someone in a foreign country is difficult. For example, if he enters the US, I don’t know if they could still find him there. It’s not that easy since the US is big,” he said.
The NBI has been less forthcoming with information after news broke out that they actually knew where Lacson was.
NBI Director Nestor Mantaring immediately allegedly appointed Villarta as the new NBI spokesman, replacing Ricardo Diaz, who was demoted to deputy spokesman and sent to Mindanao on an operation to make him less accessible to the media.
Diaz was supposedly too open with media.
Mantaring and Villarta, however, denied that Diaz was demoted.
The other day, Lacon’s lawyer Alex Avisado said he and the other lawyers have not communicated with the senator. They denied any knowledge of the whereabouts of their client.
Lacson’s lawyers from the Poblador Bautista Reyes law firm filed a motion for reconsideration last Thursday, asking Manila Regional Trial Court Judge Myra Garcia-Fernandez to reconsider her Feb. 4, 2010 order directing the NBI, the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation Division Group (PNP-CIDG), Manila Police District (MPD), Pasay Police and other officers of the law to serve the warrant of arrest against the senator for the crime of double murder.
No bail was recommended for Lacson.
His lawyers also sought the dismissal of the instant cases upon a judicial determination that probable cause does not exist.
They also asked Fernandez to voluntarily inhibit from the case to erase any doubts on her neutrality and impartiality, particularly in resolving their Motion for Reconsideration, as the judge has recently been recommended by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) for promotion to the Court of Appeals.
While they maintained that the instant cases against Lacson were part of political persecution by the administration, the lawyers said there is just and valid reason for the voluntary inhibition of the judge in hearing the cases and in resolving the Motion for Reconsideration filed by Lacson.
Publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito were taken at gunpoint on Nov. 24, 2000 along South Superhighway. Their remains were found days later in Cavite.
FROM MALAYA BUSINESS INSIGHT
Ping: Quash arrest warrant
(MALAYA) SEN. Panfilo Lacson yesterday asked Manila RTC judge Myra Garcia Fernandez to recall the warrant of arrest and to dismiss the Information for two counts of murder filed by the Department of Justice last Jan. 7.
In the 16-page motion for reconsideration, Lacson’s counsel, Alexander Poblador said the evidence relied on by the court does not show the existence of probable cause.
Fernandez issued the arrest warrant last Feb. 5. after finding probable cause to charge Lacson for the murder of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.
Among the evidence was the supposed letter of Dacer to then President Joseph Estrada dated October 8, 1999 entitled "Ping Lacson’s Maneuvers for PNP Director-General Post"; the February 13, 2009 affidavit of former P/SSupt. Cezar Mancao II stating that he overheard Lacson order another accused Michael Ray Aquino to liquidate Dacer and then Col. Reynaldo Berroya; and the June 12, 2001 statement of former P/Supt. Glenn Dumlao that he had been ordered by Aquino to conduct surveillance operations at Dacer’s office in the Manila Hotel, and conducted tactical investigations on the publicist during his abduction in Dasmariñas, Cavite.
Poblador said the court failed to consider exculpatory evidence of Lacson.
For instance, Poblador argued that even assuming that Mancao’s affidavit were true, and the alleged conversation between Aquino and Lacson took place and was overheard by Mancao, such conversation would not implicate the lawmaker as a principal by inducement or a conspirator.
He said the court also failed to rule upon the prejudgment by the DOJ, which he said rendered its determination of probable cause illegal and invalid.
Lacson’s lawyers also filed a motion for Fernandez to inhibit herself owing to her being recommended for promotional appointment to the Court of Appeals by the Judicial and Bar Council.
Poblador pointed out that one of the ex-officio members of the JBC is Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera.
Lacson has claimed the cases were part of political persecution by the administration, through the DOJ, in an effort to silence and take revenge on him because of his exposes.
Last Jan. 5 or two days before the DOJ filed the murder case, Lacson flew to Hong Kong.
His location has not been determined prompting the NBI to place him on the "Red Notice" of the Interpol. – Evangeline de Vera
'Drilon has hidden agenda in campaign vs appointment of new Supreme Court chief' (The Philippine Star) Updated February 13, 2010 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - Former senator Franklin Drilon might have some hidden agenda in campaigning to block President Arroyo from appointing the successor of Chief Justice Reynato Puno, who retires on May 17, said Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Raul Gonzalez.
Gonzalez said Drilon appears to be lobbying for Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, the most senior magistrate in the Supreme Court (SC) who earlier accepted the nomination to the post but stressed that he does not want to be appointed by Mrs. Arroyo.
The debate on the matter is whether the President is allowed to appoint a chief justice within the banned period of 60 days before her term expires on June 30.
The Philippine Constitution Association earlier took the position that Mrs. Arroyo is allowed to appoint a chief justice.
Gonzalez said Drilon knows that Carpio “is not on good terms with the President.”
“No doubt about it,” he said when asked whether Drilon was pushing to have Carpio appointed chief justice.
“He may or may not have any vested interest but he wants to install somebody who is not on good terms with the President.”
He said while Carpio may be the most senior member of the bench, it is not the primary consideration in appointing a chief magistrate.
“That’s (seniority) not an imperative. By tradition, maybe,” he said, adding there were instances in the past when the appointed chief justice was not the most senior in the SC.
Gonzalez, once a member of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) that screens appointments in the judiciary, also cited a case in 1989 wherein the SC nullified the elections in the Integrated Bar of the Philippines that was supposed to have been won by Drilon’s wife, lawyer Violeta Drilon.
He said the SC found evidence that there was electioneering, overspending as well as use of government aircraft by Drilon, who was then labor secretary, to influence the elections.
He said the JBC should look into such incidents in the past in screening their nominations to the SC.
“Those things should be considered. Nobody is pure. There are some people who portray themselves as paragons of virtue but are not.”
“People should be more discerning but memories are rather short. Your record leaves after you (do). You may show yourself as a paragon of virtue today but in the past, your virtues were tested but you failed,” Gonzalez said. – Paolo Romero