Lacson on Mancao’s DICT appointment: ‘The President can appoint an angel, a devil’

MANILA, Philippines — The President can appoint an angel or even Lucifer to any government position if he chooses to do so, Senator Panfilo Lacson said Friday.

This, as he was sought for a comment on the appointment of former police Senior Superintendent Cezar Mancao II as the head of the Department of Information and Communication Technology’s (DICT) cybercrime center.

“Two words: presidential prerogative. The President can appoint an angel, the President can appoint a devil, the President can appoint even Lucifer to any government post basta’t presidential appointee,” the senator said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel.

“That’s all that I can say. It’s Presidential prerogative,” he added.

To recall, Mancao had earlier testified against Lacson on his alleged involvement in the abduction and murder of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in 2001.

But Mancao retracted his testimony against Lacson and apologized for implicating the latter as well as former president Joseph “Erap” Estrada in the Dacer-Corbito double-murder case.

Lacson, who was cleared of any liability in the double murder by the Court of Appeals—the ruling was later upheld by the Supreme Court—previously said he has already forgiven Mancao and the others who had accused him of perpetrating the killings.

/MUF