Sen. Panfilo Lacson has filed a petition to the Court of Appeals (CA) to stop the justice department from conducting a reinvestigation on his alleged role in the murders of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito last November 2000.

Lacson, through laywer Gregorio Fernandez, filed a 56-page petition for certiorari and prohibition to the CA. It said that the Department of Justice (DOJ) committed grave abuse of discretion when it created a panel for the reinvestigation despite the lack of a prima facie evidence against him.

Lacson named as respondents recently-appointed Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera, Senior State Prosecutor Peter Ong, head of the DOJ investigating panel as well as its members namely State Prosecutors Marmarie Satin-Vivas and Mari Elvira Herrera. Named also as respondents in Lacson’s petition were the slain Dacer's children Carina Lim-Dacer, Sabina Dacer-Hungerford and Amparo Dacer-Henson.

“Persecution”

The senator said the DOJ was engaging in a fishing expedition and trial by publicity to persecute him because he is a staunch critic of the Arroyo administration.

“The assailed reinvestigation of the Dacer-Corbito double murder case marks the penultimate act in the grand scheme to persecute petitioner. The DOJ after presentation of its evidence and resting its case in Criminal Case No. 01-191969, all of a sudden coordinated with Cezar Mancao for the latter to go back to the Philippine and be its state witness to allegedly implicate petitioner in the said case. The fact that the 2010 elections are fast approaching is no coincidence, petitioner being a leading and vocal critic of the present administration,” Lacson said.

Lacson, in his petition, said that the DOJ order creating the investigating panel should be nullified because former Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, who issued the order, has already prejudged the case. He cited statements allegedly by Gonzalez that the affidavit of former Senior Superintendent Cezar Mancao will be sufficient to prove his guilt.

This position, said Lacson, was echoed by Ong and Devanadera and is a clear violation of his right to due process.

“In view of such prejudgment, the DOJ and DOJ panel cannot dispense the right of administrative due process in favor of petitioner…,” Lacson said in his petition.

‘Based on hearsay’

The issuance of a subpoena by the panel for him to file his counter-affidavit on the complaint filed by the slain Dacer’s children, according to Lacson, is part of his persecution. He said the complaint only contains hearsay and was based on the affidavit of Mancao which, the senator said, did not even allege the elements of murder.

Lacson also that the reinvestigation is illegal. He said the DOJ failed to seek permission from a Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Manila which is already hearing the double-murder case.

The senator alleged that the justice department was persecuting him considering the Mancao had been consistently denying since 2001 until last year his involvement in the Dacer-Corbito double murder.

He cited that that his former subordinate in the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) had admitted during an interview by a television reporter that he was being pressured by the Philippine government through Presidential Security Group Brig. Gen. Romeo Prestoza.

Mancao, said Lacson, only gave in to the pressures while detained by the US government when he executed his affidavit on February 13, 2009 accusing the senator of ordering the killing of Dacer and his driver.

“After probably giving in to the pressures of the Philippine government and while in custody of the US government authorities in route to his extradition to the Philippines, Cezar Mancao, in a complete turnaround, executed another affidavit this time allegedly implicating petitioner in connection with the Dacer-Corbito double murder case,” the former PAOCTF and National police chief recounted.

Extraditions

The DOJ, through then-justice secretary Gonzalez, ordered the reinvestigation after the successive extraditions from the US of Mancao and another former police and PAOCTF official Glenn Dumlao.

Mancao has been placed under the Witness Protection Program by the DOJ and is expected to be used by the prosecutors as its witness in the Dacer-Corbito case reinvestigation. Mancao has said he will tell all that he knows about the case.

The Dacer children has filed a complaint against Lacson based on Mancao’s February 13 affidavit which reportedly alleged that Lacson was the one who ordered the execution of Dacer and Corbito.

Dumlao, on the other hand, has tagged former PAOCTF official Michael Ray Aquino as having ordered him to “case” and kill Dacer in an affidavit executed in 2001.

Lacson has been a staunch critic of the Arroyo administration. In 2003, he said that First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo had control of several bank accounts under the name of “Jose Pidal.” He lost in the 2004 presidential elections landing third behind President Arroyo and the late Fernando Poe Jr. He ran successfully however for a second term as senator in 2007 finishing third with more than 15 million votes.

He had announced his withdrawal from running in the 2010 presidential race citing financial difficulties. Lacson said Tuesday however that two declared presidential aspirants are talking to him for a possible team-up.