Mancao: P150-M check still with bank, transaction stopped

DAVAO CITY ,Philippines  – Former police senior superintendent Cesar Mancao admitted yesterday that indeed the P150-million check Sen. Panfilo Lacson said was deposited in his bank account, does exist.

Mancao, however, was quick to point out that the check was not his alleged fee to implicate Lacson in the double murder of publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.

“How I wished what the senator (Lacson) has been saying was true. In that way we could spread the blessings to a lot of people. But there is no truth to what he (Lacson) is saying,” he said.

He said that he was telling the truth about Lacson’s involvement in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case and that he was not paid to implicate the senator.

Mancao said that the check that was deposited in his account was part of an alleged plot by Lacson to destroy his credibility as a witness against the senator.

“That check was supposedly intended for the payment of real estate properties for the group that was I was into. But I stopped the transaction of the check knowing that there was no sufficient funds to cover the amount. Everybody can check with the bank what happened to that transaction. I stopped the transaction,” Mancao told The STAR.

Mancao said the P150 million check was deposited in a joint account with him and a female co-depositor, at the Bank of Philippine Islands SM North EDSA branch about eight or seven months ago.

He, however, refused to identify his co-depositor but he claimed that the woman is an employee of Lacson.

“Nagmaangmaangan lang siya (Lacson played innocent). He knows that woman who always goes to his office. Tauhan niya ‘yon,” Mancao said.

Mancao’s woman co-depositor was reportedly seen at the Senate three or four times last week.

He added that a certain Hipolito Ayala of Makati issued the check. Ayala was supposed to be the buyer of a property that his group was selling.

“I never met that buyer. I never met that person Hipolito Ayala. At first I thought the buyer was real, but I also had my doubts that was why I had the check held by the bank and the transaction stopped,” he added.

Mancao said Lacson knows very well that he committed a mistake in divulging the alleged irregularity in depositing the check to his account.

“Nakuryente siya (Lacson got burned). Alam niya yan. The senator also knows that the check was maliciously deposited in my account just to destroy me. Lacson’s group was the one that deposited the check,” Mancao said.

Mancao likewise stressed that by coming out with the story on the check, Lacson is picking a fight with him.

“What does he want? Why is he doing this? If he has a problem with me, why doesn’t he face me,” Mancao asked of Lacson.

Lacson has asked the Anti-Money Laundering Council to check the P150-million deposit in Mancao’s account that is a violation of the Anti-Money Laundering Law.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) would look into the allegation of Lacson against Mancao.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima dared Lacson to reveal the specific details about the purported P150-million check deposit to the bank account of Mancao.

“We will investigate. I urge Sen. Lacson to give us more particulars about such a serious claim so I can act accordingly,” she told reporters.

De Lima expressed concern over the allegation since Mancao is under

the witness protection program of the DOJ and is testifying for the prosecution in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case.

“If it is true, I want to know where the money came from, when it was deposited, what it was for, and if that is something relevant to the Dacer-Corbito case,” she stressed.

Lacson to show proof

Senator Lacson is willing to show proof of a P150-million deposit to the bank account of Mancao.

In a statement, Lacson challenged Mancao to produce the equivalent amounts and turn these over to the government as a donation once he proves that the existence of the account and the P150 million deposit.

“I am willing to take up his challenge, if Mancao will issue an undertaking that he will produce an amount equivalent to all the withdrawals made from that account, and that it be donated to dengue victims, especially those confined in public hospitals,” Lacson said.

In a hearing on the budget of the Anti-Money Laundering Council at the Senate last Thursday, Lacson revealed details of a bank account allegedly belonging to Mancao.

The document in the possession of Lacson indicated that there was a check deposited to the account in the amount of P150 million sometime last year.

Lacson asked AMLC executive director Vicente Aquino if the deposit could be classified as a suspicious transaction under the Anti-Money Laundering Act.

Aquino told Lacson that he had something to say about the account but that he would only do so in private.

After speaking to Aquino, Lacson said that he was certain the document in his possession was authentic.

Lacson said that he was told that AMLC is conducting an investigation on the bank account.        – With Marvin Sy

“For now all I can say is that the document and the information I received should answer some questions which I kept asking myself,” Lacson said.

Lacson clarified that he was not making any allegations about where the money came from and why it was deposited to Mancao’s account.

Mancao was the main witness used by state prosecutors in going after Lacson in the murders of Dacer and Corbito.

A former subordinate of Lacson in the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, Mancao claimed that Lacson ordered the murder of Dacer.

Mancao and his colleague, former Senior Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino were the ones initially charged with the murders.

However, after providing testimony implicating Lacson in the murders, Mancao was made a state witness.

Lacson’s case was eventually dismissed by the Court of Appeals.

He denied all of the allegations made by Mancao and believed that he was enticed to make up the claims against him by the government’s promise of a comfortable life for him. With Marvin Sy