Honasan to Lacson: Submit to rule of law

MANILA, Philippines – Senator Gregorio Honasan on Thursday advised fellow lawmaker Panfilo Lacson to submit himself to the rule of law after being linked to the disappearance and killing of publicist Slavador Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito. “Submit [yourself] to the rule of law as I did. Now I am back in the Senate," Honasan said in a weekly forum in the Senate when asked for his advice to Lacson, a former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief. Honasan, a classmate of Lacson in the Philippine Military Academy Batch ‘71, said his “mistah" should go through due process to prove his innocence in the Dacer-Corbito twin killings in 2000. “Let the evidence be presented. Let the prosecution present its case and the defense defend whoever is indicted," said Honasan. On Lacson’s claim that he was a subject of a vilification campaign by the government, Honasan said the claim and counter-claims should be resolved in court and the matter should not be subjected to a trial and conviction by publicity. “The probable cause has to be determined by the court," Honasan said. Lacson has long been linked to the twin killings because he used to head the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, where the three police officers suspected of perpetrating the crime belonged. In his affidavit, former Senior Superintendent Cezar Mancao II, one of the three suspects who fled to the United States after the killing, was supposed to have divulged everything that he knew about the crime, including the names of those who masterminded it. A copy of the controversial affidavit is already in the hands of the Dacer camp and the Department of Justice. The DOJ has insisted on keeping the details of Mancao’s affidavit secret until he is back in the country. A second suspect in the crime, former Superintendent Glenn Dumlao, is scheduled to arrive in the country from the United States on Sunday. Fearing for his life, Dumlao – who did not contest the extradition case filed against him by the Philippine government before a US court – has requested that he be protected by a bullet proof vest upon his return. The former police official also said that the media should be allowed to cover his arrival. - Amita Legaspi and Mark Merueñas, GMANews.TV