State Prosecutor Hazel Decena-Valdez, one of the members of the newly created four-member prosecution panel in the November 2000 kidnapping and double-murder case, said the decision handed down by the Supreme Court last Oct. 13 gives them the authority to continue the trial against the accused, mostly senior members of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF).
Valdez pointed out the Oct. 13 ruling by the Supreme Court granted prosecutors the right to amend the criminal complaint to include former police officials Cesar Mancao and Michael Ray Aquino in the charge sheet and exclude Superintendent Glen Dumlao from the charges to stand as a state witness.
"It (the ruling) also declared as right our motion to admit Dumlao as one of the state witnesses. We were opposed by the defense. But the SC ruling on Oct. 2005 was final and executory," Valdez said.
The problem, however, is Dumlao cannot be located, Valdez said.
"Dumlao will have to testify. But if he does not, he will again be charged as an accused," she said.
Valdez explained the double-murder case was delayed because of the petition by the accused questioning the move by the prosecutors before the Court of Appeals (CA).
She said the pre-trial of the case was conducted last Feb. 6 and the pre-marking of evidence was already completed.
"The 11 accused (were) arraigned last Jan. 9. The accused themselves also moved to set the arraignment last month to make the case move. They are at the losing end because they are the ones in jail," Valdez said.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez earlier tasked Senior State Prosecutor Philip Kimpo to head the prosecution panel with Valdez, Cielitolindo Luyun and Benedict Medina as members.
Senior State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera, who formerly handled the case, said their panel found it difficult to deal with the Dacer family since they went to the US following the murders.
"Right now, the victims’ family is not in the country. They can prove the damage done to the Dacer family. They are apprehensive about coming back to the Philippines for fear of their lives," Navera said.
The family earlier expressed their intention to come back and to testify. "But their coming to the country did not push through," he said.
Navera also pointed out the Manila court cannot issue a warrant for the arrest of Aquino and Mancao since the documents of the case are still with the Supreme Court.
But once the warrant is issued, Navera said they would immediately move for the extradition of Aquino and Mancao from the US.
Aquino is currently detained in a US federal prison facing charges of espionage.
The former police officer was arrested by US authorities in September last year along with Filipino-American intelligence analyst Leandro Aragoncillo for allegedly stealing classified documents from the White House.
Aragoncillo, an intelligence analyst of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, allegedly downloaded 101 classified documents and passed some of them to Aquino.
Navera pointed out Aquino should serve his sentence in the US before he could be extradited to face the murder charges filed against him in the Philippines.
Dacer and Corbito were abducted and murdered in Cavite on Nov. 24, 2000 by alleged members of the PAOCTF, a super police body formerly headed by Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who had served as the national police chief of ousted leader Joseph Estrada until 2001.
Both were abducted and brought to Indang, Cavite where they were murdered.
Their charred remains were later found in Barangay Buena Lejos in Indang.
The murders came on the heels of reports that the publicist had had a falling out with Estrada.
Navera said the government has a strong case against Aquino and Mancao, along with the other 11 former PAOCTF personnel.
"We have witnesses from the PAOCTF who were present during the abduction and at the abduction site," he claimed.
Navera pointed out one of the witnesses even admitted strangling the victims to death while the others confessed to disposing of the bodies by burning them.
Dumlao has directly implicated Aquino and Mancao in the murders along with Police Officer 3 Larry Ambrea and a certain "Rigor," all formerly with the PAOCTF.
The high court reversed the CA decision that had denied the prosecution panel’s motion to include Dumlao as one of its state witnesses.
The ruling, however, affirmed the CA’s decision to exclude accused Jimmy Lopez, William Lopez and Alex Diloy from the complaint as state witnesses.
Aside from Aquino and Mancao, the other accused include former police officers Marino Soberano, Mauro Torres, Jose Escalante, Vicente Arnado, Roberto Langcauon, Benjamin Taladua, Rolando Lacansandile, Danilo Villanueva, Mario Sarmiento, William Reed, Thomas Sarmiento and Ruperto Nemeno.