The testimonies of Glenn Dumlao and Cezar Mancao II before the Manila City Regional Trial Court Branch 18, the latest of which was given only last Jan. 28, would show Lacson was not involved in the November 2000 slaying of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito, lawyer Alex Avisado, who serves as Lacson’s legal spokesperson, claimed on Sunday in a phone interview.

Lacson’s lawyers will raise these issues on Monday as they file a petition for Manila RTC Judge Myra Garcia-Fernandez to reconsider her issuance of the arrest order, according to Avisado.

“We want the court to put side by side the affidavits of Dumlao and Mancao with their testimonies,” he said.

Interviewed over dzBB radio on Sunday as well, Avisado disclosed that Fernandez’s decisions in the Dacer-Corbito case might have political color as her application for a seat in the Court of Appeals remained pending before the Judicial Board Council (JBC), as of Sunday.

Lacson’s camp has been claiming that the Arroyo administration has been out to persecute the senator with the double murder case.

“Who will appoint her (to the Court of Appeals seat) but Gloria Macapagal Arroyo?” he said of Fernandez.

Avisado said Lacson’s lawyers have been considering seeking the inhibition of Fernandez from the case.

In a text message, Sen. Francis Escudero, a member of the JBC as chairman of the Senate Committee on justice, confirmed Fernandez has been one of more than 30 applicants for three vacancies in the Court of Appeals

“(The vacancies for three CA justice positions) would be voted on Monday,” said Escudero.

Avisado said the 18-page arrest order issued last Feb. 5 by Fernandez did not discuss the testimonies of Dumlao and Mancao. “Because there is no resolution there but to dismiss the case,” he said.

Saying that there were transcripts in the court to back up his assertions, Avisado said Dumlao had testified that he and not Mancao knew about the so-called Operation Delta, which allegedly called for the execution of Dacer, because he was the only one taking direct orders from another Lacson ex-aide, Michael Ray Aquino.

According to Avisado, Dumlao, in his Jan. 28 testimony, said Lacson was “innocent” of the murder charges and that he had only linked Lacson to the crime in his earlier affidavit because “the men of (former military intelligence chief) Col. Victor Corpuz” had threatened to kill him.

“Mancao, in his testimony, admitted he may have gotten it wrong regarding his having overheard Lacson ordering Dacer’s execution,” Avisado said.

He said these two testimonies would have more weight, than affidavits, given that they were said in “open court.”

Aside from the recent testimonies of the government’s “star witnesses” against Lacson, Avisado said that the judge did not consider the certification made by the Bureau of Immigration that Lacson was in the United States with then President Joseph Estrada when Mancao had supposedly overheard Lacson issuing the execution orders against Dacer to Aquino.

Avisado said the petition they would file on Monday would ask Fernandez to reconsider her issuance of the arrest order and to defer the enforcement of the arrest order against the senator.

Avisado said Philippine National Police memorandum order “discourages the service of warrants on Friday” as this would “effectively deprive a person the right to post bail.”

He said this also applied to the National Bureau of Investigation, which had been serving the arrest warrant in the homes and offices of Lacson since Friday.

Avisado accused the NBI of engaging in a “double standard.”

For the lawyers of the senator, Avisado said the NBI’s serving of the arrest order against Lacson was meant to embarrass their client as well as intimidate his relatives.

He said the NBI knew Lacson was already outside of the country, especially after Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan himself confirmed the senator had left the country on Jan.5.

Avisado said he did not believe the NBI did not know Lacson’s whereabouts, given the government’s vast resources.

“This is all propaganda to create public impression that Senator Lacson was a fugitive,” Avisado said.

He also decried as premature the move of the NBI to seek the inclusion of Lacson in the “red notice” list, thus alerting foreign police units that their client was a wanted man in the Philippines.

He said the government could only resort to that if (Lacson) “has been continuously evading the arrest warrant and that he has totally abandoned his cases here.”

The lawyer insisted Lacson has not abandoned his case even if he has left the country, adding that in his last conversation with the senator on Feb. 4 (a day before the issuance of the arrest order), Lacson reminded him to monitor developments in his case and to “fight within the bounds of the law.”