Yesterday, a team of forensic experts confirmed what relatives of the victim described as the heartbreaking truth: Salvador "Bubby" Dacer is dead.
Forensic pathologists from the University of the Philippines (UP) have established that the charred remains found in Indang, Cavite were indeed those of Dacer and his driver-bodyguard Manuel Corbito.
Experts used dentures recovered from the site to ascertain the identity of the corpses, the Dacer family said in a press conference yesterday, the eve of his 67th birthday.
"This is a very sad day for the families of Bubby and Manuel. Today’s findings confirmed our worst fears. Earlier reports kept telling us they were already dead. But this confirmation broke our hearts," the Da-cer family said in a statement read by Chelen Reyes, a son-in-law of the controversial publicist.
Dacer and Corbito were abducted by armed men at the intersection of South Superhighway and Zobel Roxas Street on the Manila-Makati boundary on Nov. 24 last year.
Last March 29, Cavite farmers Jimmy Lopez and Alex Diloy were arrested and confessed their involvement in the killing of the two men. Several police officers have been implicated in the case.
Reyes said that throughout the ordeal, relatives of Dacer and Corbito had remained steadfast in their faith that "someday we will wake up to end this nightmare and be reunited with them."
"We are inconsolable and in a state of profound grief. Since they were reported missing on Nov. 24, we persisted in hoping against hope that they were still alive and were merely being held against their will by ruthless, wicked people," the Dacer family said.
They are now hoping that the forensic findings would help speed up the probe of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and result in the identification and apprehension of all those involved in the double murder, including the mastermind.
"The confirmation by medical experts is just the beginning of our search for the truth and justice for our father and Manuel. The recent results raise more questions than answers," the family said in the statement.
Reyes said the forensic experts, led by Dr. Raquel del Rosario-Fortun of the UP College of Medicine, conducted their tests last week to join the NBI in its own probe on the case. The forensic experts from UP released their findings to the Dacer family yesterday morning.
However, the NBI declined to comment on the latest development, saying it would simply wait for its own findings.
"We cannot issue a statement until we receive a report from our forensics division," said NBI deputy director for investigative services Carlos Caabay.
Earlier, the NBI forensics division, under chemist Ydabel Pagulayan, said the results of tests conducted on the charred remains would only be released after the Lenten break.
The family of the slain PR man called upon his friends and those who care about justice to come forward.
"There are still a lot of things we do not know about the case. If there is no truth, there is no justice. If there is no justice, our family and everybody else will have no peace of mind. We appeal to everyone to help us solve this case," they said.
Reyes, who is married to Bubby’s daughter Sabrina, said the painful truth was that anyone could suffer the same fate that befell Bubby.
"He lived a life of service to the people and the nation. He worked with presidents and high-ranking officials who sought his help. Yet he still fell victim to this heinous crime," he said.
The NBI has charged 12 men, including three Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) operatives.
Under NBI custody are Lopez and Diloy, who admitted participating in the crime and implicated former PAOCTF Visayas chief Teofilo Viña in the case.
Recently, however, six other civilian suspects were reported missing because authorities failed to place them under custody despite the supposed filing of charges.
Dacer and Corbito were abducted at around noon of Nov. 24.
According to Diloy and Lopez, six PAOCTF agents delivered the two victims to a garage in the evening of the same day.
Lopez admitted that he gathered wood and discarded car tires for a pyre along a creek at Barangay Bona Lejos I in Indang, Cavite, an area residents tagged as a common site for summary executions.
After gathering the wood and tires, the two bound and gagged victims were brought to the site at around 8 p.m. Lopez’s brother William allegedly strangled Dacer with a length of wire while another suspect, Digo de Pedro, strangled Corbito and later doused the lifeless bodies with petrol and set them afire.
The suspects, including the police officers, stood by to make sure the fire had fully engulfed the bodies and then left one by one.
Both Diloy and Lopez led NBI operatives to the scene of the crime where they found charred bones and teeth which were subsequently turned over to NBI forensic experts for identification.