Court OKs consolidation of cases of Lacson, Mancao, Dumlao

MANILA, Philippines - A Manila court has approved the consolidation of the double murder case against Sen. Panfilo Lacson with the one filed against former police officers Cezar Mancao and Glenn Dumlao in connection with the murders of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.

Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 32 signed the order dated Jan. 8, 2010 recommending the consolidation of Lacson’s case with a similar case filed before the sala of Judge Myra Garcia Fernandez of Branch 18. This, in effect, has transferred the controversial case to Branch 18.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed two counts of murder against Lacson last Jan. 7.

Dacer’s daughters Carina Lim, Sabina Reyes, Emily Hungerford and Amparo Henson filed the complaint based on the Feb. 14, 2009 affidavit Mancao executed in the US while he was still undergoing extradition.

A panel of prosecutors led by Senior State Prosecutor Peter Ong said there was probable cause for the filing of two counts of murder against Lacson.

The DOJ panel recommended no bail for Lacson but Ong said it is the court’s discretion whether to issue a warrant of arrest or not.

Mancao and Dumlao, former officers of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force headed by Lacson, are being considered for the DOJ’s Witness Protection Program.

Ong said that Mancao’s statement that he was present when Lacson gave out the order to kill Dacer was more believable than the senator’s assertion that he was out of the country at the time when he supposedly issued such order. Lacson claimed that he and several other Cabinet officials, including then Trade secretary now Sen. Manuel Roxas II, were part of former President Joseph Estrada’s entourage at a UN Summit in the US.

But prosecutors pointed out that travel documents presented by Lacson’s camp showed that their US trip was from Sept. 4 to Sept. 13, 2000. This means the alleged order given to another former PAOCTF officer, Senior Superintendent Michael Rey Aquino, could have been in October. Mancao claimed the operation to kill Dacer was codenamed “Operation Delta.” – Sandy Araneta