Lacson boys summoned to shed light on Dacer case

Two protégés of Sen. Panfilo Lacson and another policeman were summoned by the Department of Justice yesterday in connection with the Nov. 24 kidnap-murder of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.

State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera said they have already sent subpoenas to Senior Supts. Michael Ray Aquino and Cesar Mancao and PO3 Larry Ambre.

The three, formerly assigned to the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) which Lacson used to head, were told to report to the DOJ multi-purpose hall at 2 p.m. on July 27 and 31 to submit their counter-affidavits.

Navera said the three policemen were implicated in the Dacer-Corbito kidnap-murder case by Supt. Glenn Dumlao, also a former PAOCTF official, who admitted participating in the high-profile crime.

Dumlao said Aquino and Mancao were among those who ordered the operation on Dacer while Ambre was among the PAOCTF operatives who were involved in the double kidnap-murder case.

However, Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño said it was still too early to link Lacson to the case since the prosecuting panel has yet to finish its evaluation of Lacson’s supposed involvement in the crime.

"It’s still too premature. That will be subject to evaluation. The evidence against Lacson is still being evaluated. I don’t want to pre-empt the panel," Zuño said.

Navera said the preliminary investigation of the three policemen was in compliance with the order of Manila Regional Trial Court Judge Rodolfo Ponferrada.

Ponferrada earlier allowed government lawyers 20 days to determine if the three policemen should be included in the case pending before his court against 22 others.

Navera is a member of the three-man panel headed by State Prosecutor Ruben Carretas.

On June 29, Ponferrada upheld the position of Carretas that the Manila RTC has jurisdiction to try the double murder charges against the 22 other policemen and civilian agents linked with the PAOCTF.

"The court believes and so holds that it has jurisdiction over the offense charged. With this, the court finds it unnecessary to discuss the other matters and issues raised by the parties," Ponferrada wrote in a three-page order.

Ponferrada sustained the argument of Carretas and Navera that the charges were "in the nature of a continued crime," having kidnapped the victims in Manila and eventually killing them in Indang, Cavite.

"The offense charged being a continued crime consisting of a series of acts, the occurrence of one of the acts in Manila entitles this court to acquire territorial jurisdiction over it," Ponferrada wrote.

Aside from Dumlao, other former PAOCTF men who were charged were Chief Inspector Boy Arnado, Inspector Bobby Lancauan, Senior Police Officer 4 Boy Caladuan, SPO4 Mauro Torres, one SPO3 Villanueva, SPO1 Mario Sarmiento, SPO1 William Reed, SPO1 Ruperto Nemeno, one PO3 Lacasandile and PO2 Thomas Sarmiento.

Also charged were civilians Crisostomo Ortigacion, Digo de Pedro, Renato Malabanan, Margarito Cueno, Rommel Ryal and two unidentified men, Ong said.

The suspects were indicted on the basis of the testimony of state witnesses Jimmy Lopez, his brother William and Alex Diloy, who also admitted being accomplices to the crime.

Dacer and his driver were abducted by four armed men while on their way to Dacer’s office at the posh Manila Hotel where he was set to meet with former President Fidel V. Ramos, one of his powerful clients.

Dacer was supposed to turn over to Ramos certain documents about a "bombshell" that the then-opposition was planning to unleash against the Estrada administration.

Dacer and Corbito were abducted at the intersection of South Superhighway and Zobel Roxas Street on the Manila-Makati boundary before noon of Nov. 24.

Dacer’s white Toyota Revo was later found abandoned in a shallow ravine in Cavite but police did not reveal if forensic evidence was ever found in the vehicle.

According to Diloy and Lopez, six PAOCTF agents later delivered the two victims to a garage owned by Jimmy’s brother William in the evening of Nov. 24.

Jimmy 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 said was a common site for summary executions.

After Jimmy gathered the wood and the tires, the two bound and gagged victims were brought to the site at around 8 p.m.

William Lopez 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 later identified to belong to Dacer and Corbito.