Mancao may yet stay on as state witness

MANILA, Philippines—Former police Senior Supt. Cesar Mancao might remain as a state witness in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case, his lawyer suggested on Thursday.

Mancao, together with his counsel Ferdinand Topacio, held a two-hour closed door conference with Justice Secretary Leila de Lima following reports that the Department of Justice (DOJ) was preparing to ask a Manila court to discharge Mancao as a state witness, which would make him one of the accused.

The DOJ Witness Protection Program (WPP) office had even turned over custody of Mancao to the National Bureau of Investigation.

Last year, the Court of Appeals ruled that Mancao was an unreliable witness when he implicated Sen. Panfilo Lacson in the murders of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.

Lacson, in a budget hearing for the WPP, questioned Mancao’s continued status as state witness in the case.

Topacio said after the meeting with De Lima that he was “satisfied” with what he and the justice secretary discussed, but declined to elaborate.

“Before I went in [to the conference room], I was a bit angry, but when I got out, I was somehow satisfied because of what we talked about, which I can’t tell you yet,” he told reporters.