Mancao files motion to intervene in Lacson case

MANILA, Philippines - Former police officer Cezar Mancao filed Tuesday a motion for leave to intervene before the Court of Appeals in an effort to reverse the appellate court's ruling junking two murder complaints against Sen. Panfilo Lacson for the Dacer-Corbito twin killing in November 2000.

In the ruling dated February 3, 2011, the appellate court said Mancao, in implicating Lacson, was an incredible and untrustworthy witness.

Mancao said the ruling was "unfair" because he was not even party to the case for certiorari (review) filed by Lacson and was thus not given an opportunity to explain why his affidavits dated June 2001 and March 2007 was "inconsistent" with his February 13, 2009 affidavit.

It was in the 2009 affidavit that Mancao implicated Lacson, or 8 years after the execution of his first affidavit.

"It's unfair po sa CA na hinusgahan ako na nagsisinungaling nang hindi naman naririnig ang aming panig," Mancao told reporters in a news conference today.

"Intervenor's rights as an accused and a witness, and his interest in the treatment of his extra-judicial testimonies, have been transgressed without due process in the present proceedings, and such rights and interest may not be defended, protected or restored if he is not allowed to intervene," Mancao's motion meantime read.

Mancao's counsel, Ferdinand Topacio, claimed it is not the appellate court which should rule on the credibility or lack thereof of Mancao but the trial courts.

"Ang sinasabi namin sa CA, kung hahatulan niyo kami isali nyo kami diyan at pakinggan ninyo ang aming panig. Sinaklaw nyo ang kapangyarihan ng trial court na maghatol sa isang kaso nang hindi man lang narinig si col mancao," Topacio said.

Apart from the motion to intervene, Mancao also filed a motion for reconsideration-in-intervention where he maintained that Lacson's petition "should have been dismissed outright" because it was not Lacson but Lacson's counsel, Alexander Poblador, who signed the Verification and Certification Against Forum Shopping attached to the petition.

Citing a Supreme Court ruling in Clavecilla v. Quitain and a Court of Appeals ruling in Mariveles Shipyard Corp. v. Court of Appeals, Mancao insisted it should have been petitioner Lacson himself who signed the certification.

Mancao also assailed why no justification was provided by Lacson for his failure to personally sign the certification against forum shopping.

Mancao's MR alleged Lacson actually engaged in forum shopping because, through counsel, he raised the same issues he elevated to the appellate court before the trial court.

He also assailed why Lacson was allowed relief by the appellate court when he refused to submit himself to the jurisdiction of the courts by refusing to honor a warrant for his arrest.

"A person who has not submitted himself to the jurisdiction of the court has no right to invoke the processes of the courts," Mancao's MR read.

(UPDATE) Mancao: I took orders from Erap

MANILA - Former police officer Cezar Mancao on Wednesday told a Manila court that he directly took orders from former President Joseph Estrada as he testified for the first time in connection with the double murder of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.

A radio dzMM report said Mancao was emotional when appeared before the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 18 of Judge Myla Garcia-Fernandez.

The report said that, according to Alex Avisado, spokesman and lawyer of Sen. Panfilo Lacson, Mancao broke into tears after seeing for the first time in several years his colleagues in the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF).

Avisado said Mancao told the court that he was directly taking orders from Estrada.

“The only material admission to his affidavit was that he [Mancao] declared in open court that when he was Task Force Luzon chief, he was directly reporting to former president Estrada,” said Avisado later in an interview in ABS-CBN News Channel’s Top Story.

The radio report said the testimony was interrupted by the motion for inhibition of Avisado and another lawyer for the jailed suspects in the double murder case.

The lawyers wanted Fernandez to inhibit from the case for her surprise ruling allowing Mancao to testify.

Reports said the court was supposed to hear Avisado's motion asking the court not to admit Mancao as state witness on the double murder case.

Instead of ruling on the motion, Fernandez ordered Mancao to take the witness stand. Reports said the move was to help the court decide whether it would allow Mancao to become a state witness and remain under the government's Witness Protection Program.

In ordering Mancao to take the witness stand, Fernandez asked for the presence of the 9 policemen and civilian agents arrested for the double murder case.

The nine suspects include Senior Police Officer 4 Marino Soberano, Senior Police Officers 3 Mauro Torres and Jose Escalante, Crisostomo Purificacion, Digo De Pedro, Renato Malabanan, Jovencio Malabanan, Margarito Cueno and Rommel Rollan.

The radio report said that, according to Avisado, Mancao cried as he approached and hugged his former men. The report said the nine suspects were Mancao's former operatives when he was Task Force Luzon commander of the PAOCTF.

Mancao was scheduled to testify again before Judge Fernandez on August 13.

Mancao named Lacson and Estrada in the double murder case in his February 2009 affidavit which he executed in United States.

Avisado said however that the Arroyo government was only opening up the Dacer-Corbito case again to hit Lacson as well as Estrada.

We hope that justice will be for the deserving. we know that Sen. Lacson will be cleared, they are just using the case for political propaganda… Also against former president Erap to spoil his chances in next year’s presidency [race],” said Avisado.