MANILA, Philippines?Prominent publicist Salvador ?Bubby? Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, were abducted while cruising near the intersection of Zobel Roxas Street and President Osmeña Highway in Metro Manila on Nov. 24, 2000. They were brought to Cavite, where they were strangled to death, burned and buried.
Their remains were recovered months later from a creek bed in Cavite and identified by forensic experts in April 2001, based on the victims? dental records and personal things.
As investigation ensued, two suspects-turned-witnesses, Jimmy Lopez and Alex Diloy, both farmers, came forward and claimed that they assisted members of the then Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) in the killings.
A number of arrests were made. In May 2001, the Department of Justice charged 22 men, including 11 policemen, with double murder.
The witnesses tagged the former head of the PAOCTF-Visayas, Senior Supt. Teofilo Viña, as the leader of the PAOCTF team which allegedly snatched, executed and burned Dacer and Corbito. Viña denied the allegations.
In January 2003, Viña was shot dead in Tanza, Cavite.
On June 4, 2001, then deputy chief for operations of PAOCTF-Luzon, Senior Supt. Glenn Dumlao, was arrested. In his affidavit, he stated that President Joseph Estrada and then Philippine National Police chief Panfilo ?Ping? Lacson might have known of the crime.
Lacson, then concurrent head of the PAOCTF, denied allegations linking him to the crime.
Likewise, Estrada repeatedly and vehemently denied involvement. On June 25, 2001, then Justice Secretary Hernando Perez cleared Estrada for lack of evidence.
Aquino arrested in US
In his affidavit, Dumlao also named Senior Superintendents Michael Ray Aquino and Cesar Mancao, known as associates of Lacson, as among those who allegedly planned the murders.
Aquino and Mancao fled the country in July 2001. After finding probable cause, the Department of Justice filed double murder charges against them on Sept. 17, 2001.
Dumlao left Camp Crame in May 2003 after expressing concern for his safety, according to a senior police official.
In September 2005, Aquino was arrested in the US for unauthorized possession of US defense documents.
Aquino was indicted by a federal grand jury on Oct. 6, 2005. He pleaded guilty and in July 2007, he was sentenced to six years and four months in prison.
Mancao was arrested by US authorities in April 2006 as a material witness against Aquino in the espionage case. He was later released on bail.
On Jan. 9, 2006, 10 suspects pleaded not guilty to the double murder charges filed against them before Judge Myra Garcia-Fernandez at the Manila Regional Trial Court.
Among them were SPO4 Marino Soberano, SPO3 Mauro Torres, SPO3 Jose Escalante, SPO1 Ruperto Nemeno, and PO2 Thomas Sarmiento Jr. The five policemen were formerly assigned to the PAOCTF.
The other suspects, Crisostomo Purificacion, Margarito Cueno, Renato Malabanan, Jovencio Malabanan and Rommel Rollan, also pleaded not guilty. The five were former agents of the task force.
On May 4, 2006, the Manila RTC ordered the arrest of Aquino and Mancao after finding probable cause to charge them and 18 others with the killings.
Lacson denies involvement
In July 2008, one of Dacer?s daughters, Sabina Reyes, testified at the Manila RTC that her father had told the family on two occasions that if anything happened to him, it would be Lacson?s doing.
Reyes claimed that Lacson was peeved at Dacer for supporting former Gen. Roberto Lastimoso?s bid for the post of PNP chief. She also revealed the contents of her father?s letter to Estrada in which Dacer endorsed Lastimoso for the top PNP post and accused Lacson of waging a media campaign against Lastimoso and Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno.
Lacson again denied the allegations and said he never competed with Lastimoso for the leadership of the PNP.
