ShareThisMANILA — The hunt for fugitive Sen. Panfilo Lacson will continue until he is arrested and brought to the bar of justice for the November 2000 abduction-slay of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.
Senator Lacson
This shaped up as Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 18 rejected last week the second motion of the senator seeking to order the Department of Justice (DOJ) to reinvestigate his alleged involvement in the case.
In a two-page order dated Dec. 21, the court said it found no compelling reason to deviate from its findings in its previous order.
“After considering all the allegations and arguments contained in the said motions as well as the comments and/or opposition thereto by the prosecution and accused Cesar Mancao II, this Court finds no compelling reason to deviate from its previous findings in the said order,” the court ruled.
The court said it is significant to note that Senator Lacson has already filed a petition for certiorari with the Court of Appeals, assailing Medina’s order dated Feb. 4, 2010 and July 23, 2010 finding probable cause that he committed the crime as charged.
“In the mind of this court, the better course of action to take is to just await for the decision of the appellate court in the said petition, rather than to order a reinvestigation of the case for a favorable final decision for him might render moot the reinvestigation that the DOJ will conduct in this case,” said the order.
The senator, who claimed to be the victim of political persecution of the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, was tagged as one of the masterminds in the Dacer-Corbito slaying in Indang, Cavite.
Lacson, former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and head of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF, is facing two counts of murder in connection with the killings.
Earlier reports said Lacson flew to Hong Kong via Cathay flight CX-904 on Jan. 5, this year, just two days before the DOJ filed charges against him at the Manila RTC.
Judge Myra Fernandez, then Manila RTC Branch 18 presiding judge, issued a warrant of arrest on Feb. 4, 2010.