Dacer family confident of achieving justice under Aquino administration

Nearly 10 years after her father's death, Carina Dacer said her family remains confident that justice will finally be achieved under the administration of President Benigno Aquino III despite his close ties with the key suspect. In a phone-patch interview from New York on Tuesday, Carina told GMA News' Unang Hirit that Mr. Aquino knows the feeling of losing a father to a brutal killing. She was referring to Aquino’s father, the late Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., who was assassinated in 1983. "Kami ay naniniwala sa korte at sa pangako ni President Aquino that he will try to get justice and iyon lang po ang pinanghahawakan namin... Alam niya pa'no mawalan ng ama nang ganun ka-bayolente. Alam niya na justice delayed is justice denied," Carina said. (We believe in the court and in President Aquino's promise that he will bring justice. We count on only promise. He knows how it is to lose a father who died a violent death. He knows that justice delayed is justice denied.) Aside from pinning their hopes on the Aquino administration, the Dacer camp has earlier noted how Lacson seemed to also be putting "undue pressure" on the President, a claim denied by Lacson's legal spokesman Alex Avisado. [See related: Dacer’s daughter expects Aquino to expedite justice for her father] Carina's father, veteran publicist Salvador Dacer, was killed in November 2000, together with his driver, Emmanuel Corbito. The Department of Justice charged Sen. Panfilo Lacson with double murder before the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 18 last January. However, he had already fled the country by that time. He later admitted "escaping" what he said was the evil conspiracy between former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the DOJ, which was then headed by former secretary Agnes Devanadera. Lacson's whereabouts remain unknown, but the National Bureau of Investigation last week said he was last spotted in Rome, Italy. Mr. Aquino had appointed former police general Magtanggol Gatdula as the NBI's new head. Gatdula was once Lacson's subordinate at the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, but the new NBI chief said he there will be no special treatment for his former boss. Mr. Aquino had since vowed Lacson will not be given a kid-glove treatment. — Sophia M. Dedace, RJAB Jr./LBG, GMANews.TV