Malacañang defends DOJ over Best World angle in Dacer case

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang defended yesterday Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez for pursuing the investigation into the possible connection of the Best World (BW) Resources stock manipulation scandal and the Dacer-Corbito double murder case.

Deputy Presidential Spokesman Anthony Golez also denied accusations that the Palace was behind the revival of the probe on the insider trading and stock manipulation scandal. The Court of Appeals earlier allowed the revival of the case.

He said the administration’s attention is focused on easing the impact of the global economic crisis on the country through creating jobs.

“Dipping our hands in this issue is farfetched,” Golez told a news briefing.

“The Justice secretary is just acting based on complaints and reports and trying to validate them. And he is doing this in accordance with the mandate of his office and the institution he is representing,” he said.

Gonzalez earlier said “there has got to be linkage somewhere” between the Dacer-Corbito murders and the BW scandal and that “it will certainly have implications.”

He declined to give details but said it was possible that Dacer was in possession of key documents on BW and was on his way to a meeting with former President Fidel Ramos when unidentified men snatched him and his driver Emmanuel Corbito. Dacer was the public relations man of BW owner Dante Tan at the height of the controversy.

Asked if he would invite the former president as witness in the case, Gonzalez replied: “I don’t think it’s necessary, but it will depend on how the preliminary investigation or trial would move if the case is reopened.”

The STAR, in a report, said BW chairman Tan had instructed a stock brokerage firm to transfer 300,000 shares of the company to former police chief and now Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

Tan’s instruction was contained in a letter to AT De Castro Securities Corp. sometime in July 1999.

At the time the instruction was given, BW shares cost P30 to P35 each. The share’s value rose dramatically in the next few weeks, reaching a staggering P130 by November.

It was the sharp spike in BW share prices that sparked suspicion that the stock was being manipulated.

Golez said the personalities mentioned in the letter “don’t have to prepare for anything if they’re innocent.”

Demolition job

Opposition leader and Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay said Gonzalez’s linking of the BW scandal to the Dacer-Corbito murders was the beginning of a demolition job on ousted President Joseph Estrada.

Binay said Gonzalez began raising the possible connection between the two issues after Estrada unveiled his Senate slate for 2010 and warned he would lead anti-Charter change protests.

“The demolition work on President Erap (Estrada’s nickname) has officially started. Clearly, the Arroyo administration is afraid of an opposition victory in a clean and honest election in 2010,” he said.

“Even administration allies are gravitating towards the opposition and the only way to stop the exodus is to undermine the leadership of President Erap,” Binay said. – With Mike Frialde