MANILA, Philippines—Anticrime crusader Dante Jimenez Monday said it puzzled him how Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson could still face the public after displaying a “blatant disrespect of the rule of law” when he went into hiding to elude a warrant of arrest issued by the Manila Regional Trial Court as an accused in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case.
Jimenez, cofounder of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), and members of the group rallied outside the Court of Appeals to protest the dismissal of the charges against Lacson for insufficient evidence.
“Instead of placing himself in the jurisdiction of the court and face the double murder charge leveled against him, the senator fled the country as soon as he sensed his impending arrest,” Jimenez said in a statement.
“Even before the warrant of arrest was issued, he scampered to some foreign land to hide instead of clearing himself of the charges,” he added.
“It boggles my mind why the senator could still muster the guts to face the Filipino people after having displayed such a blatant disrespect of the rule of law, running from the court and in the process abandoning post haste his Senate duties.”
Jimenez said Lacson’s flight from justice was an example that should not be followed and was “totally unbecoming” of a senator.
“An example of the lawmaker being the lawbreaker—hiding from the law then reappearing at will when the coast is clear,” he said.
Lacson has claimed that he hurriedly left the country because the previous administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had been harassing him for exposing corruption cases purportedly involving her and her husband.
Jimenez described the claim as a “hollow excuse,” saying that the senator “was scared of his own shadow.”
He also raised the question why the complaint filed by the VACC against Lacson for his “grossly unbecoming conduct” had not yet been acted upon by the Senate.
Prosecutor defended
On Monday, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima defended one of her state prosecutors, Hazel Valdez, from Lacson’s accusations that she convinced former police official Cezar Mancao II to lie and implicate him in the Dacer-Corbito murder case.
De Lima said that as far as she was concerned, the public lawyers directly involved in the Dacer-Corbito murder case like Valdez and Senior State Prosecutor Peter Ong “were fulfilling their duties.”
In February, Valdez submitted a memorandum explaining the circumstances of her trip to the United States to secure Glenn Dumlao’s affidavit in 2009, the secretary said.
“This accusation of Senator Lacson about the alleged subornation of perjury of Prosecutor Hazel is quite serious. It is but fair that we hear her out … In the interest of fairness, she should be heard,” De Lima said.
Subornation of perjury is an offense wherein one convinces a witness to lie to implicate an innocent person.
Dacers’ lawyer
In a separate interview, lawyer Demetrio Custodio, counsel of Dacer’s daughters, said it was up to Lacson to prove his accusation against Valdez.
“He should show the subornation of the witness. It’s very easy to say, but it’s very difficult to substantiate,” Custodio told the Inquirer by phone.
As far as Dacer’s daughters were concerned, he said, “the evidence points to him (Lacson).”
Custodio said the evidence included not only Mancao’s affidavit but also the fact that the abduction of Dacer and Corbito was an operation of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), that Lacson was the head of the PAOCTF, and that Dacer had a letter to then President Joseph Estrada objecting to Lacson’s appointment as chief of the Philippine National Police.
However, one of Lacson’s lawyers, Alex Avisado, said the senator believed he could not have a “fair shake” at justice because it was the Department of Justice (DoJ) that “sought” Mancao and his former colleague Dumlao in the United States, and that it was the panel of prosecutors who “prepared” their affidavits.
Avisado said that under then Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez and his successor, Agnes Devanadera, Lacson “had no chance at all” to defend himself.
According to him, Gonzalez said even before the preliminary investigation that the DoJ had “strong evidence” against Lacson.
“Then, they conducted the preliminary investigation and resolved it. From the beginning, the senator had no chance at all under the previous administration,” Avisado said.