Ping Lacson siblings appeal for reinvestigation of charges

The family of fugitive Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson has appealed anew for at least a reinvestigation on the charges linking him to the Dacer-Corbito double murder case. In a statement, Lacson's siblings also bared their Christmas wish for Lacson to finally be allowed to go home so they can have a peaceful Christmas dinner just like most Filipinos. “Being away from home and from loved ones is one of the worst situations to be in. Our wish is for our brother to spend a quiet Christmas dinner with us, like what most Filipinos do, at home," they said in a statement. Signing the statement were Lacson’s siblings Romulo, Feliciano, Reynaldo, Juanito, Ma. Corazon Lacson-Magpayo, Ernani Lacson, and Ma. Cristina Lacson-Diaz. They said that while Lacson is not in jail, he is suffering mentally and emotionally because he was “robbed" of his honor when he was linked to the abduction and murder of publicist Salvador “Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000. “Being robbed of something valuable causes us pain and anguish. But when that ‘something’ is our personal or family’s honor, it causes terrible pain and extreme anguish. Our brother may not be in jail right now, but we can feel his suffering. Mental and emotional suffering is worse than physical pain," they said. They said Lacson was linked to the case mainly through the affidavit of former police colonel Cezar Mancao II, Lacson’s subordinate when he was head of a police anti-crime task force during the time of the murders. Prior to his stint as a lawmaker, Lacson was a policeman who became chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP). Mancao had claimed hearing Lacson give the order to neutralize Dacer while inside a vehicle. Mancao claimed he was in the car with Lacson, then police colonel Michael Ray Aquino, and driver Reynaldo Oximoso Jr. Probable cause Lacson’s siblings said there were several circumstances indicating Mancao’s allegation in his affidavit was a fabrication. They cited the affidavit of Oximoso that no such conversation or car ride ever happened, and Aquino’s affidavit denying he had ever been in the same car as Lacson and Mancao, or having any conversation with Lacson regarding any order or plan to liquidate or eliminate Dacer. Also, they said Mancao “unwittingly" proved his own affidavit to be a fabrication and a lie because of the time frame he mentioned. “His sworn affidavit indicated that the alleged car conversation took place ‘sometime in October, 2000.’ He clarified in a hearing for his petition to become a state witness that the car conversation took place ‘sometime in September, 2000 or early October, 2000.’ He clarified that he could remember it very well because it happened during the time that then President (Joseph) Estrada was out of the country," they said. They noted he made such a clarification spontaneously upon direct examination conducted by Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutor Hazel Valdez. But at the time, it turned out Lacson was with Estrada on that foreign trip, with then Trade Secretary Manuel Roxas II and Press Undersecretary Michael Toledo. On the other hand, they noted, Valdez was part of the DOJ panel that drafted Mancao’s February 14, 2009 affidavit while both were in the United States. Also, they said that before Mancao signed his affidavit linking Lacson, he was interviewed on GMA-7 and radio station dzMM. “He freely talked about being contacted by Gen. Romeo Prestoza, then presidential security chief in Malacañang. He narrated in both interviews that Prestoza wanted him to implicate Ping in the Dacer murder case and in exchange, he would be discharged as accused and he would be relocated with his family to Singapore, all expense paid. Is it a far-fetched conclusion that when threatened with extradition and being charged in this murder case; Mancao chose the easy way out by agreeing to become a state ‘witness?’" they said. They also cited the testimony of former police colonel Glenn Dumlao, who executed several affidavits attesting to Lacson’s innocence of the crime. In one of his affidavits, he reportedly narrated how officials of the previous administration tortured him physically, mentally and emotionally so that he would implicate Lacson, but he held on to the truth. Lacson’s siblings likewise noted the previous DOJ even cited a letter from Dacer to Estrada maligning their brother without submitting any proof that he knew about that letter. Another frequently told story is that Dacer allegedly told his daughters that if something happened to him, Lacson was to blame, they said. “If these allegations proved anything, it is the fact that the case filed against Ping extremely suffers from lack of evidence to establish probable cause," they said. Last Christmas together In their last Christmas together last year, Lacson’s siblings said the senator told them of “frantic moves" of the previous administration to have an arrest warrant against him. They said their brother told them to take comfort in the fact that he had nothing to do with that crime, then became inaccessible shortly before the warrant for his arrest came out. “We understand that it had nothing to do with guilt or cowardice. He had enough information to base it on. For one, he knew then that the [regional trial court] judge was an applicant for promotion to the Court of Appeals. An evil trap was set by a perceived corrupt administration and it was about to be sprung on him," they said. They noted that shortly after the warrant was issued last February 5, the judge who issued it was recommended by the Judicial and Bar Council to then President Gloria-Arroyo on Feb. 8 and promoted to the Court of Appeals one month later. “Ping became unreachable to avoid being a victim of an evil conspiracy to put him away because of his anti-graft and corruption crusade. Self-preservation is a natural human instinct. He did not regard letting evil triumph as an act of decency," they said. “A person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. But with a non-bailable crime like murder, the reality is that punishment comes before conviction. The accused suffers in jail while a court trial is ongoing to prove his guilt or innocence. Our Constitution says that the right to bail can be denied when the evidence of guilt is strong. In the case filed against Ping, the evidence is not only weak; it is fabricated. Just one affidavit with a conflicting story by a witness of doubtful credibility against multiple exonerating affidavits and statements, including two previously made by the accusing witness (Mancao) is why we say it is," they added. Puzzled by De lima Lacson’s siblings said they are “extremely puzzled" why Justice Secretary Leila de Lima continues to ignore calls for a reinvestigation of this case. They noted De Lima is waiting for additional evidence to start such a reinvestigation. “If the foregoing facts are not enough, we do not know what else would justify a reinvestigation. We can only guess that public prosecutors at the DOJ who had a hand in filing this case are giving her the wrong counsel," they said. They said it is common sense to give more weight to the testimony of three people against the uncorroborated account of one “witness." Also, they questioned why the DOJ did not even determine the true identity of “Bigote" – who was mentioned in Mancao’s affidavit as an alleged conspirator in the crime – and instead charged their brother as the mastermind. “Is this not a tell-tale sign of a concerted effort to put him in jail?" they said. “Finally, is the physical impossibility of Ping who was traveling in the U.S. to be riding in a car to Greenhills with Mancao and Aquino not enough to deem Mancao’s affidavit as nothing but imaginary trash?" they added. But they said the most compelling proof that Mancao’s affidavit is a pure fabrication comes from Mancao himself. In a statement filed by his lawyer with the court, he declared that “he only learned of the sordid affair ex post facto (after the fact)." - KBK/HS, GMANews.TV