QC court to tackle Ping arrest warrant

The hearing of Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s petitions regarding the reopened multiple murder case he faces begins on Friday.

Lacson and his co-accused in the reopened Kuratong Baleleng multiple murder case filed last week seven motions seeking judicial determination of probable cause and asking that arrest warrants for them be held in abeyance.

Clerk of court Arthur Pefiangco said yesterday Judge Teresa Yadao of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 81 will begin hearings on the motions on Oct. 17.

Lawyers of Lacson, retired Philippine National Police (PNP) Director Romeo Acop and Chief Superintendent Francisco Zubia last week filed separate motions before the court in an attempt to prevent their clients’ arrest.

Lacson was head of the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission’s (PACC) Task Force Habagat when he was implicated in the alleged extrajudicial execution of suspected Kuratong Baleleng robbery gang members along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City on May 18, 1995.

In his motion, Lacson said state prosecutors seemed overly eager to file the case and arrest him and his co-accused and put them behind bars without bail.

Under Philippine laws, murder is a non-bailable offense and a legislator is only given parliamentary immunity from arrest for offenses with sentences not exceeding six years.

Lacson’s lawyer, Sigfrid Fortun, said the reopening of the case, which was raffled to the same judge who presided over the case in 1995, might pave the way for Lacson’s imprisonment pending trial if probable cause exists for the 11 counts of murder filed against him.

Fortun said this could affect the campaign of the senator who is a presidential aspirant in the 2004 national elections.

Fortun and Acop and Zubia’s lawyer, Marc Anthony Antonio, said the reopening of the eight-year-old murder case was dismissed by Quezon City Judge Wenceslao Agnir Jr. on March 29, 1999 for lack of probable cause.

Meanwhile, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Reynaldo Wycoco said the bureau is in constant contact with overseas Filipinos who are giving them information on the whereabouts of controversial Chief Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino and Sr. Supt. Cesar Mancao II, who were also part of Task Force Habagat at the time of the Kuratong Baleleng killings.

Aquino and Mancao once held juicy posts at the PNP, but were dismissed from the service for being absent without leave (AWOL).

Despite the fact that the Quezon City court has yet to issue arrest warrants against Lacson and his 33 co-accused, Wycoco said it is best for the NBI to keep an eye out for Aquino and Mancao.

"With the Supreme Court ruling to reopen the case, we have to reiterate our request with the FBI (the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation) to locate Aquino and Mancao," Wycoco said.

They left the country shortly after being linked to the bloody May 1, 2001 siege of Malacañang and the kidnap-slaying of publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.

When Wycoco went to the United States a few months ago, he learned from the Filipino community there that Aquino and Mancao were staying in San Francisco, California with Yolanda Ricaforte, the accountant of ousted and jailed former President Joseph Estrada.

The NBI director said he has asked the FBI to confirm reports that Aquino and Mancao managed to get student visas, despite the fact that their passports had been canceled by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and that they are now undocumented aliens in the US.

While Lacson’s arrest will be handled by the PNP, the NBI will handle the extradition of Aquino and Mancao, as the bureau is the only agency tasked with implementing extradition cases.