Warrants issued vs Dacer slay suspects

A Manila court has issued arrest warrants for 22 police officers and civilian agents of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) for the abduction and slaying of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver last November.

Judge Rodolfo Ponferrada of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 41 issued three separate warrants for suspects under the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and those still at large.

Ponferrada issued the warrants on May 24, a day after approving the justice department’s amendment of criminal information pertaining to the Dacer case. Arraignment has been set for June 11.

"A warrant was requested not only for those at large but also those who surrendered to the CIDG and those in NBI custody. The agencies had no legal binding order to hold them until now," a court source said.

Ordered arrested were Senior Police Officer 4 Marino Soberano, SPO3 Mauro Torres, SPO3 Jose Escalante, Crisostomo Purificacion, Digo de Pedro, Renato Malabanan, Margarito Cuenco and Romel Rollan who are all under the custody of the CIDG. The NBI, on the other hand is holding Jimmy Lopez, William Lopez and Alex Diloy.

Those still at large are Superintendent Glen Dumlao, Chief Inspector Vicente Arnado, Inspector Roberto Langcauon, Inspector Danilo Villanueva, SPO4 Benjamin Taladue, SPO1 Rolando Lacasandile, SPO1 Mario Sarmiento, SPO1 William Reed, SPO1 Ruperto Nemeno and PO2 Thomas Sarmiento.

Among the 22 accused, 13 are lawmen with Dumalo being the highest ranked.

Dante David, lawyer for the accused, earlier said the Manila courts have no jurisdiction over the case since the information sheet filed by the Department of Justice indicated that the murders were carried out in Cavite.

The DOJ was later asked to explain and subsequently filed an amended criminal information.

In issuing the warrants, the court said it was considering "the filing of the amended information which specifies that the act constituting the killing and its aggravating circumstances started in Manila."

Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito were abducted by heavily armed men on Nov. 24 at the corner of Osmeña highway and Zobel Roxas Street in Manila near the Makati boundary. The two were later executed in Indang, Cavite.