The Department of Justice filed double murder charges Thursday against a Philippine opposition senator who claims the case is meant to punish him for his criticism of the president.
Government prosecutors charged Senator Panfilo Lacson, a former national police chief, with the November 2000 killings of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito.
Senior State Prosecutor Peter Ong said the charges were based on physical evidence as well as witness testimony, including that of a former police officer who allegedly heard Lacson give the order to kill the two. If convicted, Lacson could face life in prison.
Lacson's lawyers said the case was politically motivated and he was going to be indicted "at any cost to silence him and to punish him for his exposes against the administration."
Lacson became one of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sharpest critics after he was forced to resign as Philippine National Police chief under former President Joseph Estrada when he was ousted in January 2001. Arroyo, then vice president, succeeded Estrada.
He was elected senator in May 2001 and was one of several candidates to run against Arroyo in the 2004 presidential election.
He exposed an alleged corruption-tainted $330 million broadband deal between the Arroyo administration and a Chinese company in 2007 and bribes allegedly received by Arroyo from illegal numbers game operators in 2005. - Phil Star
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