Attorney Ferdinand Topacio INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
While a motion to discharge double-murder suspect Cezar Mancao as state witness hangs precariously at the Manila Regional Trial Court, his lawyer Ferdinand Topacio has lashed out at the solicitor-general for not taking action on a Court of Appeals ruling calling Mancao an “untrustworthy” witness.
Mancao, a former aide of Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, had implicated the latter and colleague in the murders of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in 2000.
The Dacer-Corbito murder hearings had been stalled at the Manila RTC Branch 32 after presiding Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina received in November a Supreme Court decision upholding anew an appellate court decision dismissing the charges against Lacson and calling Mancao’s testimonies “hearsay.” Jaymee T. Gamil