Lacson cleared in Kuratong Baleleng rubout case

MANILA -- Multiple murder charges against Senator Panfilo Lacson and his 33 co-accused in the Kuratong Baleleng rubout case in 1995 were recently dismissed with finality by the Supreme Court (SC).

Associate Justice Roberto Abad, who penned the court’s two-page resolution, said the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) presented no fresh arguments to grant the reversal of its ruling in November 2012.

Aside from Lacson, also named respondents in the case were Chief Superintendents Jewel Canson, Romeo Acop and Francisco Zubia, Senior Superintendents Michael Ray Aquino, Cesar Mancao III and Glenn Dumlao and other police officers.

In its decision, the Court said Judge Ma. Theresa Yadao of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court branch 81 did not commit grave abuse of discretion in 2003 when she struck down the finding of probable cause by the Department of Justice against Lacson and other policemen.

Lacson, then a police chief superintendent, was the head of the Task Force Habagat that allegedly carried out the summary execution of 11 suspected members of the bank robbery gang on May 18, 1995 in Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City.

The task force was under the defunct Presidential Anti-Crime Commission headed by then Vice President

Joseph Estrada. (Virgil Lopez/Sun

nex)