MANILA, Philippines - The Defense of Sen. Panfilo Lacson that he was out of the country when he supposedly gave the order for the 2000 Dacer-Corbito murders was boosted by Sen. Manuel ?Mar? Roxas? affirmation of an affidavit Friday.
In his sworn statement, Roxas told the Department of Justice?s panel of prosecutors that he, then the trade secretary, and Lacson were together in the party of then President Joseph Estrada that attended the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000.
?I recall that Sen. Panfilo Lacson, then director general and chief of the Philippine National Police, was a member of this delegation attending the said summit and was with us in the US at that time,? Roxas said.
He said the presidential party that included Lacson left Manila on Sept. 4, 2000, and returned on Sept. 13, 2000.
Roxas corroborated Lacson?s claim in his own affidavit that he was with Estrada?s party in the United States when the supposed conversation between him and then Senior Supt. Michael Ray Aquino transpired in a car.
Kill order
In his testimony before the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) early in September and in his own sworn statement, former Senior Supt. Cezar Mancao said he was seated in the car?s front passenger seat and overheard Lacson ordering Aquino to kill publicist Salvador ?Bubby? Dacer.
Mancao said in his court testimony that the conversation occurred in September or October 2000. He said Estrada was out of the country at that time.
In his defense, Lacson said he was with Estrada abroad at that time and could not have given the kill order as claimed by Mancao.
He said Estrada no longer had another trip abroad in the last quarter of that year.
Operation Delta
Lacson has been tagged as among those behind the abduction and murder of Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.
Dacer and Corbito were abducted on Nov. 24, 2000, as they approached the intersection of Zobel Roxas Street and President Osmeńa Highway near the border of Makati and Manila.
Their abandoned car was found three days later in Maragondon, Cavite, and their charred remains months later in the same province.
In May 2001, the DOJ charged 22 men, including 11 policemen, with double murder. The charge sheet did not include Lacson.
But in his testimony before the Manila RTC in September, Mancao named Lacson as among those behind ?Operation Delta,? the purported plan to kill Dacer.
With his testimony, he affirmed the contents of an affidavit that he executed in February in the United States. Mancao also named the late Supt. Teofilo Vińa, former Supt. Glenn Dumlao, and former Chief Insp. Vicente Arnado as directly involved in Operation Delta.
Vińa, Dumlao and Arnado were all members of the now defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, which Lacson once headed and of which Mancao was a ranking officer.
Motive
In a privilege speech at the Senate late in September, Lacson tagged Estrada as the one with the ?motive? to order the killing of Dacer.
The DOJ has since reopened the inquiry into the twin murders.
After being given an extension to file a counteraffidavit, Lacson appeared before the DOJ panel on Oct. 26 to formally deny his involvement in the killings.
He said he was in the United States with Estrada at the time he supposedly ordered Dacer?s killing. With a report from Inquirer Research
