Dacers ask SC again to reinstate murder raps vs Lacson

(Updated 5:44 p.m.) The family of slain publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to reconsider its June 14 decision that upheld a Court of Appeals ruling favoring Sen. Panfilo Lacson. In a 36-page motion for reconsideration, the Dacers' lawyers asked the SC to reinstate the double murder case against Lacson and to entertain their appeal because they were deprived of the opportunity to contest the CA's dismissal of the charges against the senator. In an interview with reporters on Wednesday, Lacson said the filing of a motion for reconsideration is a prerogative of the Dacer family. "Na-dismiss ang kanilang petition for review. E under the law, pwede naman sila mag-file ng MR within 15 days (Their petition for review has been dismissed but under the law, they can still file an MR within 15 days)," he said. Lacson, meanwhile, said he will only participate in any reinvestigation by the Department of Justice if there is any basis to conduct another probe. Last June 14, the SC junked the Dacers' petition for review on the basis that they have no legal personality to question the CA's decision before the high court. The SC said only the State, represented by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), can appeal the dismissal of a criminal case. "Only the State and its representatives may appeal the dismissal of a criminal action. That the State is the offended party in criminal proceedings is a doctrine we must uphold because it is founded on the fundamental definition of crimes and the authority of the State to exact penalties [thereof]," said the Supreme Court. The OSG had opted not to appeal the CA's decision because the Department of Justice was set to reinvestigate the November 2000 killing of Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito. In their motion for reconsideration, the Dacers asked the SC to admit their appeal because the OSG dropped its duty to appeal the CA ruling. "The problem, however, is that the OSG, whose bounden duty it was to represent the State and the offended party in the case against Respondent (Lacson), had shirked that obligation. Suddenly the OSG turned its back on its earlier vigorous defense of the trial court's finding of probable cause against Respondent and deliberately failed to appeal the Court of Appeals' decision on the flimsy excuse that it was 'afraid that [the appeal] will suffer the same fate as what happened in the Court of Appeals,'" the Dacers said. They also argued that they have the legal personality to seek the reinstatement of the case against Lacson because they are are entitled to civil indemnity for the killing of their father. "With all due respect to the Honorable Court, petitioners have a material interest in the reinstatement of the criminal case against Respondent, with which the civil action for the recovery of civil indemnity for the death of their father was deemed instituted," they said. — with Kimberly Jane Tan/RSJ, GMA News