MANILA, Philippines – Former police superintendent Glenn Dumlao, another suspect in the killing of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000, returned to the country yesterday after hiding in the US for over seven years.
Dumlao confirmed that he would testify for the government in the reinvestigation of the double murder case to identify the mastermind.
He was placed under protective custody of the government and brought to headquarters of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Manila after the fugitive arrived at 3:41 a.m. at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 on board Philippine Airlines flight PR 103.
Dumlao, who was joined at the NBI by his lawyer Morell Callueng, expressed relief that he had finally returned home and was ready to face trial in the Dacer-Corbito murders which, he admitted, had been hounding him for the past years.
Handcuffed and clad in black jacket and black cap, Dumlao was escorted by lawyer NBI Interpol division chief Claro de Castro Jr. and Special Task Force (STF) chief Arnel Dalumpines, who fetched him from Los Angeles, California.
Justice Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor, head of the inter-agency task force handling cases of media killings, confirmed that prosecutors are expected to move to put Dumlao under the Witness Protection Program (WPP).
He said there is no legal impediment in putting Dumlao under WPP since he is no longer an active police officer, citing a Supreme Court ruling on Oct. 5, 2005 that prohibits policemen from availing of the WPP.
“The Supreme Court decision is no longer applicable. He was disqualified before because at that time, he was an active member of the Philippine National Police. But now he is no longer a member of the PNP and therefore can be covered by the program,” Blancaflor explained.
He said the NBI would limit the visitors of Dumlao while he is waiting for the approval of his application for WPP.
Blancaflor said Dumlao would be required to submit a list of persons that would be allowed to visit him at the NBI.
He said that even relatives of Dumlao would be checked before they could visit him.
Dumlao arrived at the NBI after his co-accused in the double murder case, former senior superintendent Cezar Macao II was transferred to a safehouse provided under the WPP. Mancao arrived in the country last June 4 and is already under the WPP.
Dumlao’s return to the country was earlier approved by the US Justice Department after the submission of his required deposition in the pending extradition case against a fellow suspect, former senior superintendent Michael Ray Aquino, before a federal district court in New Jersey.
Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera confirmed that the re-investigation of the Dacer-Corbito case has formally started.
Devanadera said the special panel of prosecutors led by Senior State Prosecutor Peter Ong has summoned Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who was implicated by Mancao in his affidavit as the former chief PNP who supposedly ordered the killing of Dacer and Corbito.
Ong is the same prosecutor who handled the investigation of the Kuratong Baleleng rubout case, where Lacson was also implicated.
“On the basis on new evidence anchored on Mancao’s affidavit, Sen. Lacson was given 10 days to file his counter-affidavit (on the double murder charges filed by daughters of Dacer),” Devanadera said in a phone interview.
She said a hearing has been set for the reinvestigation of the case at 2 p.m. on Friday.
“The preliminary investigation is about due process. It’s a requirement of law. Everyone should be subjected to due process,” she said.
Devanadera vowed that Lacson would be accorded due process and opportunity to explain his side.
In his first affidavit executed in 2001 that he will reportedly affirm, Dumlao said Aquino ordered him to “case” and kill Dacer.
Dumlao later executed another affidavit in 2003 claiming that he was pressured to implicate Lacson in the Dacer-Corbito murders.
There were reports said Dumlao had affirmed his first affidavit and he agreed to become a prosecution witness.
Mancao implicated Sen. Lacson in the double murder case in an affidavit executed last Feb. 14.
Dacer’s daughters Carina, Sabina, Emily and Amparo, filed last March 23 a nine-page complaint before the consul general in New York and California in the US where the women now live.
“Sen. Lacson not only conspired with the accused in the murders of our father and Mr. Corbito but in fact orchestrated the same. Being then the head of the PAOCTF (Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force) he exercised ascendancy over all members of the task force, particularly those who executed the killings,” the complaint stated.
“To be sure, the acts of PAOCTF personnel were involved before, during and after the gruesome killings of our father and Mr. Corbito could have only been done upon the direction of Sen. Lacson,” the Dacer sisters added.
Lacson headed the PAOCTF while concurrently chief of PNP. Aquino was then the operations chief of the PAOCTF while Mancao served as chief of Task Force Luzon under PAOCTF.
Meanwhile, Dumlao apologized to Dacer’s daughter hours after he arrived in the country “Ma’am, pasensiya na kayo. Kayo ang nabigyan ng injustice dito. Sorry dahil natagalan itong kaso na ito.” – With Paolo Romero, Michael Punongbayan, Rudy Santos