'Dumlao not tortured' into naming Lacson

MANILA, Philippines - Former police superintendent Glenn Dumlao did not say he was tortured into signing an affidavit implicating his former boss, Sen. Panfilo Lacson, in the killing of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito, a state prosecutor handling the case said yesterday.

State Prosecutor Hazel Valdez denied a report that quoted one of Dumlao’s private counsels, Cesar Brillantes, as saying the state witness confessed he only implicated Lacson in the double murder case because he was tortured.

“I was the one who presented him (Dumlao) to court and he indeed admitted there was psychological pressure and intimidation but on cases not related to the Dacer case. I didn’t even hear him say the word torture,” Valdez told reporters at the Department of Justice.

She said Dumlao admitted he was pressured in implicating Lacson only in cases involving Kuratong Baleleng, Ador Mawanay and Rose Bud Ong.

As for the Dacer–Corbito case, Dumlao is testifying for the prosecutor and maintains he executed his last affidavit implicating Lacson on his own volition.

The fiscal said Dumlao mentioned “psychological pressure and intimidation” not on the execution of the affidavit against Lacson but on the affidavit he signed before leaving for the US in May 2003 where he cleared the senator.

“It was a no sign – no go order. Before helping him flee to the US in May 2003, he was asked to sign a typewritten affidavit recanting his first affidavit executed in June 2001 where he implicated Lacson in the Dacer case,” she said.

Valdez recalled that when she asked Dumlao in court why he signed the affidavit knowing some of its contents weren’t factual, he replied: “I just really wanted to leave at that time, and that (signing of affidavit) was their condition to help me leave despite an HDO (hold departure order).”

She added that the execution of the typewritten affidavit was atypical of Dumlao as the latter had executed his other affidavits in handwriting.

Dumlao’s testimony was made at Wednesday’s hearing on the motion to discharge his former superior at the Presidential Anti-Organized Task Force, ex-senior superintendent Cezar Mancao II, as an accused to become a state witness.

Reporters were reportedly barred inside the court room during hearing, and had to rely on information given to them by lawyers after the proceeding.