Dumlao's arraignment reset to Aug 26

MANILA, Philippines - The arraignment of former police superintendent Glenn Dumlao, who is facing double murder charges, was reset to Aug. 26 after his lawyers asked the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) yesterday for more time to study the case.

Dumlao arrived at the Manila RTC Branch 18, presided over by Judge Myra Garcia Fernandez, at around 2 p.m. wearing a light pink shirt and bulletproof vest, accompanied by his lawyers, Rogelio Agoot and Cesar Brillantes.

Heavily armed National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents escorted Dumlao and secured the Manila City Hall.

During an interview after the hearing, Agoot said he moved to defer Dumlao’s arraignment since he only found out last Wednesday that his client was again included among the accused in the November 2000 murders of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito.

Agoot said the court gave them 30 days, or until Aug. 26, to “thresh out the issue, to study our position on the issue, and file the appropriate pleading.”

Agoot said Dumlao cannot decline if the prosecution panel calls him to testify about the murders. “Otherwise we could be cited for contempt,” he said.

Brillantes said they were “surprised” by Dumlao’s inclusion in the list of respondents because the Supreme Court (SC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have issued separate resolutions discharging Dumlao as one of the accused.

He said the new DOJ panel, headed by Senior State Prosecutor Philip Quimpo, who is not a member of the original panel, included Dumlao as one of the accused because they misread the SC resolution.

“To us, it should have been properly read, that he (Dumlao) must be discharged,” Brillantes said.

He also said they are studying whether to re-apply for the DOJ’s witness protection program. Brillantes said his client was disqualified from the WPP before because he was still a police officer.

Dumlao and former police senior superintendent Cezar Mancao II, along with former senior superintendent Michael Ray Aquino, of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, are among the accused in the double murder case. Dacer and Corbito were killed on Nov. 24, 2000 by alleged PAOCTF members.

Aquino is facing extradition proceedings in the US. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe