DOJ chief expects 'powerful' testimony from Dumlao

Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera expects former police Superintendent Glenn Dumlao to give a powerful testimony in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case once he returns to the country.

Devanadera, in a radio interview Wednesday morning, likened Dumlao’s expected testimony to a "bagyo (storm)" but declined to elaborate on it.

"Parang bagyo kalakas, ha ha ha (It’s like a storm, [laughs])," she said in an interview on dzXL radio, when asked to assess Dumlao’s expected testimony in the case.

She also confirmed that a team from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has left the country to fetch Dumlao, but did not give further details.

Also, she did not she say when Dumlao is expected arrive in Manila, even as earlier reports indicated Dumlao is due to return this coming weekend.

“I’m confirming that. Nakaalis na ang NBI team dahil wala nang balakid na legal. Tapos na ang deposition paging, kaya ipinasundo na namin siya (I’m confirming the NBI team has left to fetch Dumlao. There is no more legal obstacle to his extradition. His deposition paging is finished, so we’ll fetch him)," she said.

Key witness

The government considers Dumlao a key witness in the disappearance and subsequent killing of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.

Earlier, another former police official - former Senior Superintendent Cezar Mancao II - returned to the country from the US to testify in the reopening of the Dacer-Corbito case.

Former President Joseph Estrada and Senator Panfilo Lacson, who was head of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, have been linked to the crime. Estrada and Lacson’s camps have vehemently denied the allegations.

Devanadera said that once Dumlao returns, the DOJ will schedule a preliminary investigation.

On Tuesday, Justice Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor said he was informed by their US counterparts that Dumlao has already submitted his deposition in the pending extradition case against a fellow suspect, former Senior Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino, before a federal district court in New Jersey.

Three affidavits

But Blancaflor admitted that he has yet to know which among Dumlao’s three affidavits will the former police officer affirm before the court.

"I will still have to confirm with him," Blancaflor said on Tuesday.

Dumlao executed the documents on June 12, 2001, May 20, 2003, and March 2, 2007. [Click here for a comparison of the three affidavits]

In the first affidavit, Dumlao pointed to Lacson as the brains behind the killings.

In the second affidavit, however, Dumlao said he was only pressured and tortured to link Lacson. In the third affidavit, Dumlao affirmed that he was tortured and said that he feared returning to the Philippines because he might be tortured again. - GMANews.TV