In The Know: Ex-Senior Supt. Glenn Dumlao

Former Senior Supt. Glenn Dumlao

Former Senior Supt. Glenn Dumlao, then deputy chief for operations of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF)-Luzon was among the 22 men who were originally charged in 2001 in the Dacer-Corbito killings.

Publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, were abducted on Nov. 24, 2000, at an intersection in Makati City. Their charred remains were found in April 2001 in a creek in Cavite province and identified by forensic experts through their dental records and personal belongings.

Dumlao allegedly ordered a  PAOCTF team to execute Dacer and Corbito in Indang, Cavite, hours after they were abducted.

Dumlao was arrested in June 2001. In his affidavit, Dumlao said then President Joseph Estrada and Panfilo Lacson, who was then the chief of the Philippine National Police and the PAOCTF, might have knowledge of the murders. Both Estrada and Lacson denied knowing anything about the killings.

Dumlao also tagged former police intelligence officer Michael Ray Aquino and former Senior Supt. Cezar Mancao II, known aides of Lacson, as among those who planned the murders.

On June 25, 2001, then Justice Secretary Hernando Perez cleared Estrada of involvement for lack of evidence.

Aquino and Mancao fled the country in July 2001. They were charged in absentia in September 2001.

Dumlao also fled the country in May 2003.

The Manila Regional Trial Court ordered the arrest of Aquino and Mancao in May 2006, after finding probable cause against them and 18 others in the double-murder case.

In November 2008, Mancao and Dumlao were arrested in the United States on extradition requests from the Philippines.

Mancao arrived in Manila in June 2009 and pleaded not guilty at the Manila RTC. He later turned state witness.

Dumlao arrived in the country on July 26, 2009. He turned state witness two months later and was dropped from the list of the accused.

In January 2010, the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Lacson with two counts of murder in connection with the killings, based on Mancao’s affidavit, which tagged Lacson as the mastermind of the murders. A warrant of arrest was also issued against the senator.

But Lacson fled the country before the prosecutors could bring charges against him. He  claimed he was being persecuted by the administration of then President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo because of his damaging exposés against her and her husband.

In August 2010, during an appearance in court, Dumlao said he refused to go along with the script handed to him by the DOJ prosecution team and “stood his ground” defending Lacson’s innocence.

He later told reporters that government prosecutors forced him to pin down Lacson in his testimony.

In February 2011, the Court of Appeals’ special sixth division threw out the double-murder case against Lacson, saying there was no probable cause “to justify the filing of two separate informations for murder against [Lacson], consistent with his constitutional right to be presumed innocent and in consonance with existing jurisprudence, he should be relieved from the pain and agony of trial.”

The appellate court also ruled that the arrest warrant against Lacson was already void.

The Court of Appeals later ruled that Mancao was an unreliable witness.

Meanwhile, Aquino was extradited in June 2011 after serving a three-year jail term in a US jail for espionage. He also entered a not guilty plea, but was ordered to be released last month for lack of evidence. Inquirer Research

Source: Inquirer Archives