“Our position is the warrant of arrest is still subsisting and [the manhunt] is still also ongoing,” De Lima told reporters when asked if the National Bureau of Investigation would proceed with its search despite a Court of Appeals (CA) ruling that cleared the fugitive senator of involvement in the 2000 murders of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito.

De Lima made a similar remark to reporters in Camp Crame: “The warrant of arrest is still existing because, before the CA, it has not been nullified. The warrant of arrest should be enforced.”

She said the government had two options to respond to the dismissal of the charges against Lacson: one, to file a motion for reconsideration within the 15-day period before the ruling becomes final and executory, and if the motion is denied, elevate the case to the Supreme Court, and the other, to reinvestigate the case.

Until late afternoon Friday, Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 18 had not received an order from the CA to revoke the arrest warrant issued by Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina on February 4, 2010.

Branch 18 legal researcher and officer in charge Gerardin Dagale said the order might be relayed to the court next week.

She said the judge was on leave on Friday.

Political dimension

Lacson has been in hiding since January 2010, claiming that he was being persecuted by the administration of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo with his indictment on the twin murders.

Said De Lima: “What I can see here is something that we’ve been grappling with and we just don’t want to articulate or admit—that there is a political dimension to this case. Senator Lacson has been saying he was a victim of persecution ... and in fact, I have also been accused of persecuting him when I was kind of firm in having the warrant of arrest implemented.”

Efforts to reach Lacson lawyer Alex Avisado for comment went for naught.

De Lima said she had not yet read the 80-page ruling promulgated by the appellate court’s special sixth division on Thursday.

But she said that from her “stock knowledge” of the rules of court, the arrest warrant stood unless the CA specifically said that “the nullification and setting aside of the warrant is immediately final and executory.”

“I don’t think [Lacson’s lawyers] can claim that it’s immediately lifted,” she added.

No double jeopardy

De Lima said the prosecution team had yet to decide on the “most appropriate route” to achieve the “end goal” in the case—to find “closure” by pinpointing the mastermind of the twin murders.

But she said what was clear and “beyond question” was that the principle of double jeopardy was not yet applicable in Lacson’s case.

“The principle of double jeopardy has not yet set in ... in favor of Ping Lacson because there has not yet been an arraignment. So if there is no double jeopardy, a reinvestigation can always be done,” De Lima said, adding that she would decide on the option to be taken by the Department of Justice after being “convinced [of] the correctness, the propriety, of the justifications invoked by the Court of Appeals in nullifying the finding of probable cause.”

But Demetrio Custodio, legal counsel for Dacer’s daughters, told the Inquirer by phone that he was “not amenable” to a reinvestigation of the case.

Custodio said the justice department under De Lima’s predecessors had already determined probable cause against Lacson in a preliminary investigation.

He also said the warrant for Lacson’s arrest still stood as the CA ruling was not yet final.

Still hopeful

Dacer’s daughters—now based abroad—have issued a statement expressing disappointment over the CA’s decision.

At a press conference in Quezon City, Custodio said his clients were still hopeful that justice would be served.

In the statement, Dacer’s daughters said the dismissal of the murder charges against Lacson was a setback to their efforts in seeking justice for their father and Corbito.

“[Their] deaths and our fight to continue justice show the sorry state of crime and punishment in the [Philippines] and the unchanged pace of the wheels of justice in the country,” part of the statement read.

Custodio said the family would seek relief from the appellate court or the Supreme Court.

“I have just received [a copy of] the resolution today and I haven’t read it in full, so I don’t know exactly what to question in particular. But definitely, we’re going to question the finding that there is no probable cause,” he said.

CA ‘in error’

The CA had ruled that there was no probable cause “to justify the filing of two separate [cases] for murder” against Lacson.

Acting on a petition for review, it said that the statements of former police officer Cezar Mancao II linking Lacson to the murders were not credible and that he had the “propensity” to contradict himself.

But Mancao’s lawyer, Ferdinand Topacio, said the CA had erred.

“It may have overstepped its mandate, its bounds, when it issued a ruling on the merits of the case, when what was being asked of it was to review the finding [of the lower court] that there is probable cause,” he said.

Topacio also said only a regional trial court, as the main “trier of facts,” could decide on the merits of a case.

He said the appellate court should only answer questions of law, such as whether there was probable cause or not, and not to try the facts and dismiss the case against Lacson.

Asked to comment on the CA statement that Mancao was not a credible witness, Topacio said the court was not able to observe the witness’ demeanor in trial.

“His credibility should be determined in a full-blown trial. But it wasn’t the case. Mancao is not even a party to the case,” the lawyer said.

Topacio agreed that Lacson’s arrest warrant still stood.

“With due respect to my colleagues, the warrant stands until [the ruling] becomes final and executory. Some people are saying the arrest warrant is now ‘in limbo.’ But there is no such thing as ‘limbo’ in legal terms. The warrant still stands and it has not yet been lifted,” he said.

Custodio said it would be “advisable” for Lacson to come out of hiding, “to face the challenge.”

Anticrime crusader Dante Jimenez put it another way: “Because he fled from the public eye, the impression of the public is that flight is guilt. He should face the music. Magpakalalaki ka (Be a man).” With reports from Julie M. Aurelio, Alcuin Papa, Jeannette I. Andrade and Christian V. Esguerra

Nikko Dizon, Phil. Daily Inquirer