Government deal with Lacson behind Gonzalez ouster?Philippine Star
By Tony Calvento Updated June 11, 2009 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines – Incoming Palace chief legal counsel Raul Gonzalez’s removal from the Department of Justice may have been part of an exchange deal with respondents in the Dacer-Corbito murder case wherein prosecutors would go slow on them, sources said yesterday.
Gonzalez’s being “kicked upstairs†and the withdrawal of Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who is said to be involved in the nine-year-old case, from the presidential race may not have been a coincidence.
Gonzalez, who has threatened to quit from the Cabinet and return to his hometown of Iloilo if anyone “monkeys around†with the reinvestigation into the murder of publicist Salvador “Bubby†Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000, has offered to serve as lawyer for witnesses against Lacson.
Former police senior superintendent Cezar Mancao has returned to the country from years in the US to testify when the case is reopened, and his fellow former police official Glenn Dumlao is set to return this month also to testify.
“I hope they allow me to pursue the Dacer-Corbito case. I will lose face and my credibility with these witnesses, Mancao and Dumlao, after assuring them that I will help them tell all they know in the twin murders and that I will see to it that justice will prevail,†Gonzalez said.
“If I’m prevented from doing so I will just take a leave, attend to my ailing son and go back to my constituents in Iloilo,†Gonzalez added.
But sources suspect “a deal or arrangement†has been reached.
The same source said that someone close to a top ranking Cabinet member arranged a meeting between Lacson and the Palace official. “There was reportedly a ‘quid pro quo’ and this allegedly is the real reason behind Lacson’s withdrawal from the race,†the source said.
It was this same Palace official who had instructed Gonzalez to stop talking about the Dacer-Corbito case and the return of Mancao.
“All I asked was that I be allowed to work on the Dacer-Corbito case and let the ax fall where it should. Unfortunately, I was not given that privilege despite all these things unfolding under my watch and through my efforts,†Gonzalez said.
In a farewell lunch with reporters covering the Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday, Gonzalez said he is determined to help in the second prosecution of the double-murder case even in his capacity as chief legal counsel of President Arroyo.
“I will (help in this case). I told (Executive) Secretary (Eduardo) Ermita about it already. I just want justice to be done properly,†he revealed.
He said he doesn’t mind if his involvement in the Dacer-Corbito case would be questioned as it would suggest that the Palace has a hand and there could be a political motive. He believes there is no difference if he assists in the reopening of the case as chief legal counsel or DOJ secretary.
And if he would be barred from participating in the reopening of the double-murder case or should the case be mishandled in any way, Gonzalez said he might consider resigning from the Cabinet.
“If this case will not be handled well not because of the incompetence of prosecutors but because of some other reasons, I can always resign and offer myself as lawyer for these people,†he stressed.
He also vowed to expose “whoever will be trying to monkey around with the case.â€
Gonzalez was pivotal in the reopening of the Dacer-Corbito case. It was during his term at the DOJ that Mancao and Dumlao agreed to return to the country and finally reveal the brains and motive behind the killings.
“I don’t want this case abandoned. It’s unfair to Mancao and Dumlao. I have pledged to protect these people who relied on my word and I will stick to my word,†he explained.
He reiterated that the case might be crucial as it “can open wider horizons.â€
However, he admitted he is concerned about how the case would progress when he leaves DOJ under acting Secretary Agnes Devanadera.
“I do not know how passionate she will be with the case as I have been. But I’m confident that SolGen Devanadera would continue (pursuing the case),†added Gonzalez.
Gonzalez’s last act on the Dacer-Corbito case before leaving the DOJ tomorrow was the creation of a new panel of prosecutors that would handle reinvestigation of the killings.
In an order, he tapped Senior State Prosecutor Peter Ong, who also handled the investigation of the Kuratong Baleleng rubout case, as head of the panel with City Prosecutor Fidel Macauyag and State Prosecutor Mari Elvira Herrera as members.
In his first affidavit executed in 2001 which he will reportedly affirm, Dumlao had tagged former police senior superintendent Michael Ray Aquino as having ordered him to “case†and kill Dacer. But in 2003 he executed another affidavit claiming he was pressured to pin down Sen. Lacson in the case.
Mancao, on the other hand, reportedly executed an affidavit last Feb. 14 implicating Lacson as the former chief of the Philippine National Police who supposedly ordered the killing of Dacer and Corbito, prompting the daughters of Dacer to file a double murder case against the opposition senator.
Dacer’s daughters Carina, Sabina, Emily and Amparo executed last March 23 their nine-page complaint affidavit before the consuls general in New York and California in the US where they now live, according to their lawyers Demetrio Custodio Jr., Raymond de Castro and Love Joy Cecilia Brillantes.
“Sen. Lacson not only conspired with the accused in the murders of our father and Mr. Corbito but in fact orchestrated the same. Being then the head of the PAOCTF (Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force) he exercised ascendancy over all members of the task force, particularly those who executed the killings,†the complaint stated.
Lacson headed the PAOCTF when he was concurrently chief PNP.
Aquino, on the other hand, was operations chief of the PAOCTF while Mancao served as chief of Task Force Luzon of the PAOCTF.
On Nov. 24, 2000, Dacer and Corbito were snatched at the corner of Zobel Roxas Street and South Super Highway at the boundary of Manila and Makati. They were subsequently brought to Indang, Cavite where they were killed and their bodies burned.
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