NBI men in US to get Mancao

MANILA, Philippines – With no more legal impediment to the extradition of former police officer Cezar Mancao II, two National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) officials have arrived in the US to pick up one of the principal suspects in the murders of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.

Ricardo Diaz and Claro de Castro Jr., heads of the NBI’s Anti-Terrorism and Interpol divisions, arrived in Los Angeles, California Saturday night (Philippine time), Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said.

“I sent them (NBI officials) to the US already. I received information that there is an instruction for the US Marshall to bring Mancao to Los Angeles. That means there is really no more legal impediment to his return,” Gonzalez said in a phone interview.

The two NBI officials have started coordinating with the US Marshall for the security arrangement for Mancao’s return flight to Manila as well as with the country’s consulate in the US for his travel documents, he said.

Aside from the two NBI officials, Mancao’s wife and his lawyer are expected to accompany him on his return flight. No date has been given for his extradition.

Gonzalez said the government is “almost 100 percent sure” of Mancao’s return soon, but he declined to give a time frame to avoid an embarrassment in the event of another delay.

He said an earlier NBI mission to pick up Mancao returned empty-handed after a court in Newark, New Jersey summoned the former police chief to stand as witness in the extradition case of another Dacer-Corbito suspect, Michael Ray Aquino.

Eventually, the court simply required Mancao’s camp to submit a deposition on the case.

Mancao earlier reportedly offered to stand as state witness in the Dacer–Corbito case.

The Justice secretary has already met with the special panel of prosecutors that would reinvestigate the double murder case. 

A third suspect in the case, former senior superintendent Glenn Dumlao, is also in the US and fighting extradition.

Mancao reportedly executed an affidavit last Feb. 14 implicating former Philippine National Police chief and now Sen. Panfilo Lacson in the gruesome murders.

Dacer’s US-based daughters, Carina, Sabina, Emily and Amparo, executed last March 23 a nine-page complaint affidavit against Lacson before the consuls general in New York and California.

“Senator Lacson not only conspired with the accused in the murders of our father and Mr. Corbito but in fact orchestrated the same. Being then the head of the PAOCTF (Presidential Anti-Organized

Crime Task Force) he exercised ascendancy over all members of the task force, particularly those who executed the killings,” the complaint read.

Armed men snatched Dacer and Corbito at the corner of Zobel Roxas Street and Osmeña Highway on Nov. 24, 2000. Their charred remains were found days later in Indang, Cavite.