MANILA, Philippines – Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has sought to allay fears of Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson about her objectivity in the investigation of the 2000 murders of Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, saying she is not obsessed with pinning down the senator for the crime.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, De Lima said the reinvestigation to be conducted by the government was meant to put “closure” into the 10-year-old murders.
“I would want to correct the seeming impression and the reports that the thrust is to really find out or determine whether indeed Senator Ping Lacson was the mastermind. No it’s not… I am not pursuing the investigation just to pin down Senator Ping. That’s farthest from my mind,” De Lima said.
Last week, Lacson said that the justice secretary was “obsessed” with jailing him. The senator was a fugitive for a year, resurfacing only after the appellate court ruled that there was no probable cause to indict him for the double murders.
“If people think that I am obsessed whenever I do my job, then so be it. It just so happened that this is a high profile case and that’s why it is attracting a lot of attention from media. So probably that’s the misimpression. That’s what Senator Ping sees – that I am obsessed. It’s just how I do my job,” De Lima said.
The reinvestigation of the Dacer-Corbito murders will be conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) as soon as former police colonel Michael Ray Aquino, one of the accused in the murders, is extradited back to the Philippines from the United States.
A team of NBI agents left on Monday night for the United States to pick up Aquino who has been ordered extradited by a US court.
Citing security concerns, De Lima said the date of arrival of Aquino in the Philippines would remain unknown “perhaps until he arrives” at an airport in Manila.
De Lima also reiterated her confidence in the capacity of NBI Director Magtanggol Gatdula to carry out an independent and professional investigation even if he was once a subordinate of Lacson in the Presidential Anti-Organized Task Force (PAOCTF), which was primarily being blamed for the double murders.
Asked if the reinvestigation would include former President Joseph Estrada as allegedly the person nicknamed “Bigote” in the supposed conversations of the PAOCTF agents involved in the killing, De Lima said that would happen if Aquino, and former police officers Cezar Mancao and Glen Dumlao, would name the deposed leader as the mastermind.
“I am giving them a chance to really come clean by either affirming their original statements or modifying them if warranted, or completely changing their existing statements so it depends. If in the statements there would be reference to the former President as allegedly “Bigote,” if it turns out that there’s still “Bigote,” then so be it. He will be included,” de Lima said.
De Lima appealed to Estrada and Lacson “to cooperate” in the reinvestigation.