Palace expects Lacson to return to Senate soon

MANILA, Philippines - The Aquino government does not see any obstacle to the return of Sen. Panfilo Lacson to the Senate.

Lacson has been in hiding since January 2010 when an arrest warrant was issued against him in connection with the November 2000 killing of publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said that the lawyer of Lacson had already announced that the senator would resurface soon.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo said he expects Lacson to come back to work after the Court of Appeals quashed with finality the arrest warrant against him.

Robredo, however, assured the families of Dacer and Corbito that the investigation into the double murder case would continue even if the warrant against Lacson was nullified.

Robredo said the administration formed teams to track down Lacson who, he believes, is not hiding in the country.

Several sources claimed that the senator did not leave the country and is just hiding in the provinces since he disappeared in January 2010.

The National Bureau of Investigation said Lacson has been removed from the Red Notice List of Interpol.

DOJ eyes reinvestigation

The Department of Justice (DOJ) plans to conduct a reinvestigation of the killings of Dacer and Corbito.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said she is inclined to order a reinvestigation of the double murder instead of appealing the CA ruling before the Supreme Court as a better option to put closure to the case “without significant delay.”

Among the possible leads the DOJ could pursue is the identity of “Bigote,” whom a witness had tagged as the higher government official who could be the mastermind of the murders.

De Lima explained that key personalities Sr. Supt. Cezar Mancao II, Sr. Supt. Michael Ray Aquino and Supt. Glenn Dumlao were consistent on this detail although their affidavits clashed on Lacson’s purported involvement in the case.

“The nagging question which the public has been asking and waiting for all these over 10 years is who ordered the abduction and killing of Dacer and Corbito. Nobody will believe if we say only those three were behind it. Somebody else higher than them ordered it, and that is what I am targeting,” she stressed.

De Lima earlier junked a request of Sen. Lacson’s camp for a reinvestigation and stood firm on DOJ’s findings of probable cause to indict the senator in court based on testimony of Mancao.

But with the CA ruling, she said the credibility of Mancao would have to be reassessed and that testimonies of Aquino and Dumlao should be clarified.

She revealed receiving a letter from relatives of the fugitive senator manifesting his intention to cooperate with a reinvestigation. – With Delon Porcalla, Edu Punay, Sandy Araneta