PAOCTF agent to be charged in court for Dacer abduction

An agent of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) will be charged in court Monday with kidnapping in connection with the disappearance of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November last year.

National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Reynaldo Wycoco told reporters yesterday they have sufficient evidence to pin down Senior Police Officer 3 Marino Soberano.

"He was positively identified by one of our witnesses as among those present during the raid at the Sun Valley Subdivision in Parañaque and was also among those who abducted Dacer in Manila," he said.

Wycoco said NBI agents are still investigating seven other policemen, including two officers, who took part in the raid, to determine if they should also be charged with kidnapping.

Reports identified the seven policemen as Inspectors Wilson Perdido and Dionisio Bonoy, Senior Police Officer 4 Willy Nuas, Senior Police Officer 2 Gomercito Cagnayo, Senior Police Officer1 Adelaido Celarco., and Police Officers 3 Roco Matic, and Edmund Gacuti.

However, the seven PAOCTF agents said in an official statement yesterday the NBI’s action is part of "a pattern of harassment" to discredit them and Puwersa ng Masa senatorial candidate Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and PAOCTF.

The seven policemen said last November’s raid on a house in Sun Valley Subdivision was a legitimate anti-drug operation and in no way a cover for the surveillance of Dacer.

"There is absolutely no truth to the allegations of the National Bureau of Investigation that we have something to do with the disappearance of public relations expert Bubby Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito," the policemen said. –Mike Frialde, Delon Porcalla