Justice as a birthday present

I arrived at the San Francisco federal court last week about 10 minutes late for my 8:00 a.m. hearing. Federal Judge William Alsup asked me to explain why I was late and he added that my excuse “better be a good one”. I told him it was my birthday and my wife wanted to have breakfast with me before I left. He smiled and said “OK that’s a good one but you can only use that excuse once a year”.
Then we proceeded to discuss my motion before him which was for a default judgment against Defendant Michael Ray Aquino. I had filed a federal civil lawsuit on September 16, 2010 against former Pres. Joseph Estrada, Panfilo Lacson, Michael Ray Aquino and other defendants on behalf of my clients, the four daughters of Salvador Dacer, who all now reside in the US. The suit sought compensatory and punitive damages for the “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, torture and extrajudicial killing of Plaintiffs’ father, Salvador “Bubby” Dacer, under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) and the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA).”
The lawsuit claimed that then Pres. Joseph Estrada had ordered his private army, the “Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force” (PAOCTF) to abduct and execute Dacer who, Estrada feared, would present damaging evidence of Estrada’s corruption just as Estrada was undergoing impeachment proceedings. Dacer’s driver, Emmanuel Corbito, was included also because he was there with Dacer.
The Philippine Supreme Court, in its Soberano decision on October 5, 2005, summarized the facts of what occurred as follows:
“On or about November 24, 2000, Salvador “Bubby” Dacer, together with his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, was abducted along Zobel Roxas St., in the City of Manila. Their charred remains, consisting of burnt bones, metal dental plates and a ring, were later found in Barangay Buna Lejos, Indang, Cavite. They were positively identified by their dentists and by forensic pathologists from the University of the Philippines. Both victims were killed by strangulation.”
In a sworn affidavit, Glenn Dumlao, a PAOCTF officer and close friend of Michael Ray Aquino, testified that Aquino directed him to kidnap and interrogate Dacer and Corbito and destroy certain evidence in the attaché case of Dacer. The Philippine Department of Justice, after concluding its investigation, determined that Aquino was the “coordinator of the PAOCTF men in charge of abducting Dacer” and that he “gave direct orders” to the participants and “was obviously stage managing the entire operation via cellular telephone” that culminated in their executions.
Tipped off by his patron, Lacson, Michael Ray Aquino was able to flee to the US before a warrant for his arrest could be issued.
It was not until much later, after Aquino was arrested, charged and convicted of a federal crime in the US that he was subsequently deported back to the Philippines where the criminal case against him was mysteriously dismissed.
Losing any faith in the Philippine legal system, the daughters of Dacer retained me to sue the parties responsible for their father’s murder in a federal civil court.
After I filed the lawsuit, my problem was serving the defendants. I contacted a law firm in the Philippines to help me serve Estrada and Lacson. I was told that no process server was willing to serve Estrada and Lacson. “It wasn’t worth it”, I was told, citing the examples of certain individuals who crossed Lacson who were killed. Because they were not served, the suit against Estrada, Lacson and other defendants was dismissed.
But I was able to serve Aquino and he filed a motion to dismiss my civil complaint claiming that the federal court in the US had no jurisdiction over him as the acts complained of occurred in the Philippines. His motion was denied and he filed an answer generally denying the allegations of the complaint.
When Aquino did not appear at a mandatory status conference of the case, I filed a motion for a default judgment against him. And the hearing on that motion was set for my birthday on November 7.
The main issue before the court was whether a US Supreme Court decision rendered in April of this year removed the US court’s jurisdiction to hear the case.
In his decision, Judge Alsup ruled that based on the recent US Supreme Court decision, the federal court had no jurisdiction to hear the case based on the Alien Torts Claim Act but it had jurisdiction based on the Torture Victims Protection Act.
The TVPA provides that an individual who, “under actual or apparent authority, or color of law, of any foreign nation (1) subjects an individual to torture shall, in a civil action, be liable for damages to that individual; or (2) subjects an individual to extrajudicial killing shall, in a civil action, be liable for damages to the individual’s legal representative, or to any person who may be a claimant in an action for wrongful death”.
In his decision, Judge Alsup ruled that the daughters of Dacer have standing to sue Aquino because “they are bringing a wrongful death action for their father’s extrajudicial killing. The TVPA defines extrajudicial killing as “a deliberate killing not authorized by a previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.”
Almost 13 years after their father was cruelly tortured and murdered on November 24, 2000, the Dacer daughters may finally succeed in obtaining a measure of justice.
(Send comments to Rodel50@gmail.com or mail them to the Law Offices of Rodel Rodis at 2429 Ocean Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94127 or call 415.334.7800).