EDITORIAL - Justice… but not in the Phl

More than 13 years after publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito went missing, their relatives have found justice… in the United States. This week Judge William Alsup of the US District Court of Northern California in San Francisco reportedly ordered former police officer Michael Ray Aquino to pay Dacer’s daughters punitive and compensatory damages totaling more than $4.2 million. The US court found Aquino responsible for coordinating the November 2000 kidnapping, torture and execution of the two victims, whose charred remains were found in a shallow grave in Cavite in 2001.

In the Philippines, the case is crawling along in typical fashion, with several key witnesses and other players murdered or gone missing. Incriminating testimony given by state witness Cezar Mancao has been disregarded. Former senator Panfilo Lacson, who headed the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force whose key officers were implicated in the gruesome twin killings, has been cleared of involvement and now coordinates the rehabilitation of typhoon-devastated Eastern Visayas. Former PAOCTF officer Teofilo Viña, accused of directly implementing the execution and who could have pointed to the mastermind, was gunned down in Cavite in January 2003.

The US court accepted the civil suit filed by Dacer’s daughters because at least one of them is a US citizen and Michael Ray Aquino lived there for several years while evading prosecution for the murders. He also acknowledged the US court’s jurisdiction when he filed his answer to the formal complaint. Arrested later for espionage, Aquino pleaded guilty to the charge in 2007 and was extradited. He and several others accused of participating in the double murder were charged before the Manila Regional Trial Court only in April 2008.

How many more years will it take for this case to be resolved? Several men are detained and have given detailed stories, from the time the victims were waylaid at the junction of Manila and Makati until they were tortured in Cavite, strangled to death with a length of wire, burned beyond recognition and buried in a dry creek.

US court records said Dacer was ordered killed because “certain officials suspected (him) of political dealings.” The US court has even established the motive. How many more years before Philippine courts resolve this case?