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Deadline extended for Dacers’ $120-M case vs Erap, Ping


The $120-million civil lawsuit filed by heirs of murdered Filipino publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer before the United States District Court in Northern California was saved from being dismissed when the Dacers’ lawyers were given 90 more days to serve summons on former President Joseph "Erap" Estrada and Senator Panfilo M. Lacson, among other prospective defendants. In a minute order issued on April 8, Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero gave the Dacer legal team until July 22, 2011 to serve summons on all prospective defendants, adding that: "Any defendant who has not been served will be dismissed without prejudice or case will be dismissed without prejudice." In an email, the Dacers’ lawyer Rodel E. Rodis said Spero granted his request for an extension after the District Court judge was shown the front page headlines of a Filipino-American newspaper declaring "Lacson out of hiding." In a prior minute order, Judge Spero gave Rodis and other Dacers’ lawyers Felix J. Antero and Errol Zshornack only up until April 8 to serve summons on the prospective defendants “or the Court will dismiss [their] action." Serving summons on Lacson, Estrada On April 6, Rodis requested "the Court to extend the time for service for another three months" on behalf of Carina Dacer, Sabina Dacer-Reyes, Amparo Dacer-Henson and Emily Dacer-Hungerford. In his filed motion, Rodis said the "main defendant in this case is Panfilo ‘Ping’ Lacson, who, Plaintiffs [Dacers] allege, was the ‘mastermind’ of the order to abduct, torture and execute their father, Salvador ‘Bubby’ Dacer on Nov. 24, 2000." In Jan. 2010, Lacson left the Philippines and went into hiding in Hong Kong and other unknown places after a Philippine local court issued a warrant for his arrest. Lacson even eluded INTERPOL authorities, preventing plaintiffs from serving the summons on him. But on March 28, 2011, Lacson returned to the Philippines from Hong Kong. Plaintiffs’ process servers are now hard at work attempting to serve summons on Lacson on or before July 22. Rodis also said that former President Estrada "has also been eluding service." "Plaintiffs’ process servers have been prevented from entering the Estrada compound to serve on Defendant Estrada. Plantiffs’ process servers are waiting for Defendant Estrada to appear at a public function so that he can be served. Plaintiffs believe that Defendant Estrada can be served during the extended period requested," Rodis said. Michael Ray Aquino ‘tracked down’ The Dacers’ lawyers were also able to track down another prospective defendant, former police Senior Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino, at the Hudson County Correctional Center in South Kearney, New Jersey. They said they are now in the process of serving summons and complaint on Mr. Aquino "to be timed with the service on Defendants Lacson and Estrada." They said another prospective defendant, Glen G. Dumlao, a former Philippine police officer, "is presently in hiding in the Philippines as he is aware that he is a Defendant in this action." Also said to be in hiding were other persons sought to be made defendants in the Dacers’ lawsuit, namely, Reynaldo Tenorio, who is believed to be in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Dante Tan, believed to be in Australia. Lacson succeeded in getting the Philippine Court of Appeals to dismiss the warrant issued against him by the Philippine Department of Justice after prospective co-defendant Cezar Mancao II's testimony pinning Lacson was rejected by the appellate court as “unreliable." Mancao had testified under oath that Lacson issued the order to Aquino to liquidate Dacer. In their complaint, the Dacer siblings said they filed suit in the U.S. because they "cannot rely on the Philippine legal system for justice." Their lawsuit is one for damages resulting from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, torture and extrajudicial killing of their father. They are suing more than a hundred prospective defendants, "individually and in their official capacity." They demand at least $20-million compensatory damages and $100-million punitive damages plus attorney’s fees and costs. The Dacers’ lawsuit is based on the Alien Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victim Protection Act adopted from an obscure United States Judiciary Act of 1789, which vests U.S. district courts with original jurisdiction on any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States. Their lawsuit is also based on the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, an international human rights instrument, which the Philippines ratified on June 18, 1986, and the United States on Oct. 21, 1994. – MRT/RSJ, GMA News

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