Echoes From
BY JOHNNY DAYANG

Days after the Court of Appeals 6th Division junked the two murder cases against Senator Panfilo Lacson in connection with the Dacer-Corbito double murder case, I am reminded of this quote from noted African spiritual leader and novelist Bishop Desmond Tutu:"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."

I am not an impartial observer in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case. Publicist Salvador "Bubby" was a very close, highly cherished, personal friend of mine. I regard his daughters as my own and have been one with them in the quest for justice for Bubby and his driver.

For a while, it did seem that justice was at hand. After almost a decade, the court finally issued an arrest warrant against Senator Lacson, the man identified by former Lacson aide Cesar Mancao as the mastermind in the Dacer-Corbito double murder.

But Lacson fled the country on January 6, 2010. He told the media he left because the charges against him were false; a trumped-up charges of the Arroyo administration that was persecuting him for his blunt exposes on then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Almost nine months after the Arroyo administration had been replaced by the administration of President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino, Lacson remains successful in evading the law. By some strange occurence, law enforcers continue to seem incapable and inept at apprehending the senator and former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

And now suddenly, 13 months after a warrant for his arrest was issued, Senator Panfilo Lacson is freed by the Court of Appeals of all charges in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case.

The Aquino government did not welcome the CA decision. Justice secretary Leila M. de Lima announced the manhunt for Lacson stays, adding that the DOJ is filing a motion for reconsideration with the CA.

Malacanang said it would consult with De Lima on the best course of action to take in the light of the CA decision.

It is my hope that the Aquino administration would do right in the Dacer-Corbito murder case. The signs seem promising enough. There is no neutrality in justice. As Mr. Tutu said, to be neutral is to take the side of the oppressor.