Tuesday, 30 November 2010
THE lawyers of fugitive Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Monday “new evidence should impel Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to take a closer look at claims linking the senator to the Dacer-Corbito case. President Benigno Aquino 3rd had ordered de Lima to review the case against Lacson.
De Lima said she had the power to review even if the case is already pending before the courts. She added, however, that she would do so only if there are new developments to warrant it.
De Lima said she had the power to review even if the case is already pending before the courts. She added, however, that she would do so only if there are new developments to warrant it.
The lawyers of Lacson said new pieces of evidence have surfaced, including the August 2 affidavit of former Senior Police Officer 4 Reynaldo Oximoso Jr. and the August 9 affidavit of former Senior Supt. Michael Ray Aquino.
Lawyers Alexander Poblador and Joseph Joemer Perez said they were forced to write de Lima because of former police Col. Cezar Mancao 2nd’s demand that former police Col. Glenn Dumlao act as a state witness in the case or have charges against him refiled.
They disputed Mancao’s claim that Dumlao’s exoneration of Lacson was a turnaround from his previous testimony and was contrary to the terms of Dumlao’s exclusion from charges.
“The truth is that while Dumlao has implicated others, he has never implicated Senator Lacson in the Dacer-Corbito case,” they said in their letter to de Lima.
Lacson’s lawyers also said the affidavits of Oximoso and Michael Ray Aquino support Dumlao’s exoneration of Lacson. They said the affidavits contradict Mancao’s February 13, 2009 affidavit that he overheard Lacson and Aquino discussing an “Operation Delta” to “neutralize or liquidate” Dacer inside the car driven by Oximoso. Aquino and Oximoso declared under oath that no such conversation inside a car ever took place.
Poblador and Perez said they have already requested Branch 18 of the Regional Trial Court of Manila, to order a reinvestigation of the case “based on these new evidence.” The Department of Justice (DOJ), however, objected to the reinvestigation.
“It is our hope that the DOJ will take a second look at the significance of these new evidence and accordingly withdraw its objection to the said pending Motion for Reconsideration,” they wrote de Lima.
EFREN L. DANAO
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