Senior State Prosecutor Phillip Kimpo said the Manila regional trial court has already scheduled the hearing of the case and ordered the prosecution to present its first witness.
"There was already an arraignment and a pre-trial marking of evidence. We will be starting the trial on May 3, 2006 by presenting the first witness that we have," Kimpo said.
He said the witness would testify on how he saw the accused forcibly snatch public relations practitioner Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito along Osmeña Highway in Manila before they were brought to Cavite on Nov. 4, 2000.
"He is an eyewitness who could positively identify those persons who abducted Dacer and Corbito," Kimpo said.
One of the state witnesses, police Superintendent Glen Dumlao, was reinserted on the charge sheet as an accused following the Supreme Court ruling on Oct. 13 last year.
"There was modification in the information that we filed in court as ruled by the Supreme Court," Kimpo explained.
"The Supreme Court ruled that Dumlao cannot be included as a witness under the Witness Protection Program (WPP) of the government because he is a police officer," he said.
Kimpo said Dumlao should be charged first and later discharged from the case as an accused before he could turn state witness.
There were reports that Dumlao had gone into hiding and joined his other co-accused, Cesar Mancao, in the United States.
Both were ranking officers of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) along with former Senior Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino whose men were mainly implicated in the kidnapping and murder of Dacer and Corbito.
Should Dumlao decide to resurface, Kimpo said he would be accommodated by the prosecution as a witness to testify against Aquino and Mancao.
"Dumlao’s testimony would be centered on the links of Aquino and Mancao in the kidnapping and murder of Dacer and Corbito. But the case can stand in court even without Dumlao," Kimpo stressed.
Mancao remains a fugitive while Aquino was arrested and charged with espionage by the US government.
Kimpo said Phillip Sigfrid Fortun, counsel of Aquino in the espionage case in the US, represented the former police colonel in the Dacer-Corbito case by filing a motion to suspend the proceedings, citing alleged violations of human rights of his client in the absence of a preliminary investigation.
Kimpo said Aquino could not invoke his right to preliminary investigation since he had already waived this during the hearing conducted by the DOJ panel.
He said the prosecution panel had already asked the Manila RTC to deny Aquino’s motion.
"We are also asking the court to issue the warrants for the arrest of Aquino, Mancao, Dumlao and Senior Police Officer 2 Allan Villanueva," Kimpo said.
Kimpo admitted the government would have to wait for Aquino’s trial in the US to conclude before it could move to extradite the former police colonel.
Dacer and Corbito were abducted and their charred remains were later found in Barangay Buena Lejos in Indang, Cavite.
Forensic investigation showed that the two were strangled to death before their bodies were burned.
Witnesses later revealed and identified some PAOCTF operatives carried out the murder before disposing of the bodies.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez earlier designated Kimpo as the new chairman of the prosecuting panel after State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera decided to inhibit himself from the case.
Navera claimed the prosecution panel had difficulty communicating with the Dacer family since they were staying in the US.
But he stressed the case against Aquino, Mancao and the 11 other accused PAOCTF members remained strong.
"We have witnesses from the PAOCTF who were present during the abduction and in the abduction site. There were also civilians, one of them admitted that he was the one who strangled the victims to death and the others admitted that they were the ones who burned them," Navera said.
Dumlao has directly implicated Aquino and Mancao, along with Police Officer 3 Larry Ambrea and a certain Rigor of the PAOCTF.
Aside from Aquino and Mancao, the others accused in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case include Senior Police Officer 4 (SPO4) Marino Soberano; SPOs3 Mauro Torres and Jose Escalante; Chief Inspector Vicente Arnado; Inspector Roberto Langcauon; SPO4 Benjamin Taladua; SPO1 Rolando Lacansandile; Inspector Danilo Villanueva; SPOs1 Mario Sarmiento, William Reed and Ruperto Nemeno; and PO2 Thomas Sarmiento.