Dacer family to ask DFA to cancel Lacson's passport

(Updated 5 p.m.) The lawyer for the family of slain publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer is expected to request the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Wednesday to revoke the passport of fugitive Senator Panfilo Lacson. Lacson, who has been in hiding since January this year, is alleged as the principal suspect in the Nov. 24, 2000 killings of Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in Cavite. At that time, Lacson was concurrent head of the Philippine National Police and the Presidential Anti-Orgaized Crime Task Force, the unit implicated in the twin murders. In a phone interview with GMANews.TV, Demetrio Custodio, lawyer of the Dacer family, said he will file the letter to the DFA Wednesday afternoon after asking the public prosecutors handling the case to affix their signatures. "We're filing it with the DFA today [Wednesday]. If his [Lacson's] passport is cancelled, he'll no longer be recognized as being in the protection of the Philippine government," said Custodio. Custodio said the move is pursuant to the Manila Regional Trial Court (MRTC) Branch 18's recent ruling denying Lacson's motion for a Justice Department review on the double murder case. The July 23 order of the MRTC also mandated the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the DFA to take the proper steps in bringing the senator back to the country. Government prerogative At the Senate, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said the chamber will not intervene in the possible cancellation of Lacson's passport. "They can do that if they want... that's the prerogative of [the] government," Enrile told reporters. He reiterated his advice to Lacson to face the charges. "I'm sure that if he is here, he can fight his battles." On Tuesday, Justice Sec. Leila de Lima said she has ordered the department's prosecutors handling the Dacer-Corbito double murder case to coordinate with the Dacer family in communicating with the DFA. On Wednesday, she said the Justice Department's letter, seeking the cancellation of Lacson's passport, will be finished anytime soon. "Maybe, within the week," De Lima said in an ambush interview. — with Kim Tan/VVP/RSJ, GMANews.TV