By JOSEPH G. LARIOSA

(© Journal Group Link International)

U.S. Court Extends for 90 Days Period to Serve Summons on Former President Estrada and Senator Lacson in the Dacer $120-Million Civil Case

C HICAGO (jGLi) – A Filipino-American newspaper headline, screaming, “Lacson Comes Out of Hiding,” might have saved the $120-million civil suit filed by the heirs of Filipino publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer from being dismissed when Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero of the United States District Court in Northern California gave Dacer’s lawyers 90 more days within which to serve summons and complaint to former Philippine President Joseph “Erap” Estrada and erstwhile fugitive Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson and several others.

After “I showed Judge Spero the front page of the most recent issue of the (Daly City, California-based weekly) Philippines Today paper that had Lacson's photo in the cover with the caption "LACSON OUT OF HIDING" which I had referred to in the papers I filed last Wednesday (April 6), explaining the status of our efforts to serve (summons to) the defendants (and a)fter acknowledging that he had read my status-conference statement, Judge Spero granted my request and gave me until July 22, (2011) to serve (summons to) all the defendants,” according to an e-mail from one of Dacer’s lawyers, Rodel E. Rodis.

In a minute order issued on April 8, Judge Spero re-scheduled “further case management conference” to serve summons to Defendants for July 22, 2011, at 1:30 p.m. in Courtroom A, 15th Floor, San Francisco. “Any Defendant who has not been served will be dismissed without prejudice or case will be dismissed without prejudice.”

In a prior minute order, Judge Spero gave Rodis and others lawyers Felix J. Antero and Errol Zshornack until April 8, 2011, to serve summons on the defendants “or the Court will dismiss this action.”

LACSON CAN NOW BE SERVED WITH SUMMONS

L ast Wednesday (April 6), Atty. Rodis filed papers on behalf of Carina Dacer, Sabina Dacer-Reyes, Amparo Dacer-Henson and Emily Dacer-Hungerford before Judge Spero, requesting “the Court to extend the time for service for another three months.”

Mr. Rodis said the “main defendant in this case is Panfilo ‘Ping’ Lacson, who, Plaintiffs allege, was the “mastermind” of the order to abduct, torture and execute their father, Salvador ‘Bubby’ Dacer, on Nov. 24, 2000.”

On Jan. 5, 2010, Lacson left the Philippines and went into hiding in Hong Kong and other unknown places to avoid an arrest warrant for him issued by the Philippine Justice on Jan. 7, 2010.

Senator Lacson eluded Interpol authorities and his vanishing act prevented plaintiffs from serving “the Summons and Complaint in this matter. However, on March 28, 2011, Mr. Lacson returned to the Philippines from Hong Kong. Plaintiffs’ process servers are now hard at work attempting to serve him and they feel reasonably confident that Defendant Lacson can be served during the extended period requested.”

Rodel Rodis also said that former President “Estrada has also been eluding service. He does not appear at public events and is holed out in his mansion in a compound in San Juan, Philippines, which is heavily guarded.

“Plaintiffs’ process servers have been prevented from entering the Estrada compound to serve on Defendant Estrada. Plantiffs’ process servers are waiting for Defendant Estrada to appear at a public function so that he can be served. Plaintiffs believe that Defendant Estrada can be served during the extended period requested.”

TRACKS DOWN MICHAEL RAY AQUINO

T he Dacer lawyers were able to track down another defendant, Michael Ray Aquino, at the Hudson County Correctional Center at 35 Hackensack Avenue in South Kearney, New Jersey. They said they are now in the process of serving summons and complaint on Mr. Aquino “to be timed with the service on Defendants Lacson and Estrada.”

They said another defendant, Glen G. Dumlao, a former Philippine police officer, “is presently in hiding in the Philippines as he is aware that he is a Defendant in this action.”

Also in hiding are other defendants Reynaldo Tenorio, who is believed to be in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Dante Tan, believed to be in Australia.

Mr. Lacson, according to the court documents, succeeded in getting the Philippine Court of Appeals to dismiss the warrant issued against him by the Philippine Department of Justice after the court has reportedly treated Cezar Mancao’ testimony “unreliable.”

The complaint said Mancao testified under oath that he heard Defendant Lacson issue the order to Defendant Aquino to liquidate Mr. Dacer.

It was disclosed that “(b)ecause the witness was not part of the Lacson unit that abducted and tortured Dacer, it was perfect (sic) reasonable to understand that the witness did not know exactly when Dacer would be abducted even though he heard Lacson and Aquino plot the abduction of Dacer.”

In their complaint, the Dacer siblings filed for compensatory and punitive damages for cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, torture and extrajudicial killing of Mr. Dacer against the defendants, including Philippine police officer Vicente Arnado, “individually and in their official capacity, and Does 1-100,” in the U.S. because the Dacers “cannot rely on the Philippine legal system for justice.” They demanded at least $20-million compensatory damages and $100-million punitive damages plus attorney’s fees and costs.

The lawsuit was based on the Alien Tort Claims Act (ACTA) and the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) adopted from an obscure United States Judiciary Act of 1789 that vests “district courts” original jurisdiction on any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.

lt is also based on the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, an international human rights instrument, under the United Nations, that aims to prevent torture around the world. This convention was ratified by the Philippines on June 18, 1986, and by the United States on Oct. 21, 1994. # # #

Editor’s Note: To contact the author, please e-mail him at:  (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)