MANILA - The Court of Appeals on Thursday junked Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson's petition to stop the Department of Justice (DOJ) from investigating his alleged role in the murders of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.

In a 56-page petition for certiorari and prohibition, Lacson told the appellate court that the DOJ committed grave abuse of discretion when it created a panel to reinvestigate his supposed involvement in the double murder case 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.

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 said the DOJ order creating the investigating panel should be nullified because former Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, who issued the order, had 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.

Lacson announced that he is deferring his plan to run for president in 2010 with the arrival of Mancao from the United States.

Former police superintendent Glen Dumlao, another former operative of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force headed then by Lacson, has been extradited to the Philippines.

Reports said Dumlao is also being eyed as a state witness against Lacson and other suspects in the murders of Dacer and his driver. -- report from radio dzMM