MANILA, Philippines—Ex-Senior Supt. Cesar Mancao II can link anyone to a controversial double-murder case “if he is under pressure” to name names, deposed President Joseph Estrada said Friday.

Estrada disclaimed involvement in the abduction and killing of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito, purportedly by members of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) chaired by then Philippine National Police chief Panfilo Lacson.

The crime occurred in November 2000, during the Estrada administration.

“I have nothing to do with it,” Estrada told the Inquirer on the phone. “If he (Mancao) is under pressure, he can name anyone.”

According to a lawyer of the Dacer family, Mancao has named the mastermind and the perpetrators of the double murder in an affidavit prepared in the United States, where he is facing extradition proceedings.

Mancao, a former PAOCTF officer, is among the 22 charged with the double murder at the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 18. He fled to the United States in July 2001.

Good friends

Estrada said Dacer was “one of my good friends.”

“We were friends long before I became President,” he said. “I was baptismal godfather and wedding sponsor of one of Dacer’s children.”

They even met in Malacañang two or three days before Dacer and Corbito were abducted by armed men at the South Expressway, Estrada said, adding:

“We talked about many things, for old times’ sake. He even requested that [then Parañaque] Mayor Joey Marquez be given a permit to travel abroad.”

Senator Lacson has also said he had nothing to do with the double murder.

Stop speculating

In Malacañang, Cabinet Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Friday appealed to the media to stop speculating on the contents of Mancao’s affidavit.

“Wait for Mancao to come back and hear from him what his statements are,” Bello told reporters at a briefing. “Other than that, everything else will be pure speculation.”

Bello said Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez was holding a copy of the affidavit but was not revealing the contents for “a reason.”

Mancao is expected back in Manila in three weeks.

With a report from TJ Burgonio