Mancao dropped from witness protection program

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) removed former policeman Cezar Mancao II from its witness protection program (WPP) and turned him over to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) yesterday after a Manila court junked his request to make him a state witness in the November 2000 killings of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Mancao was transferred to the NBI pending his formal release from the program’s coverage. She said the WPP office is just waiting for a comment from the DOJ panel prosecuting the case before the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 18 before officially acting on the status of Mancao, who identified Sen. Panfilo Lacson as the mastermind of the double murder.

“The determination of his exact coverage can’t be easily done without inputs from the panel… As an interim measure, while we’re waiting for the final action of WPP office on his exclusion from the WPP coverage, we turned him over to the custody of NBI,” she said.

She explained that Mancao’s removal from the program was a result of the resolution of the RTC and of earlier rulings of the Court of Appeals (CA) and the Supreme Court (SC) that dismissed his credibility as a witness.

Earlier this month, Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina junked Mancao’s petition seeking to be made a state witness. The judge cited a CA ruling declaring Mancao as an “incredible and unworthy” witness and clearing Lacson in the case. The ruling was affirmed by the SC on Nov. 23, 2011.

Bunyi-Medina added that she cannot issue a contrary pronouncement with respect to the dismissal of Lacson’s case and the CA’s findings that Mancao and his story are not credible.

On Nov. 24, 2000, Dacer and Corbito were abducted near the intersection of Zobel Roxas street and Osmeña Highway in Manila. Their charred remains were found in a creek in Cavite months later.