Dacer’s vehicle found in Cavite

Police found last Monday night the car of a missing public relations man after it was rammed down a deep ravine in a remote barangay in Maragondon, Cavite.

However, there were no signs of the controversial Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver of 15 years, Manuel Corbito.

Police investigators also found a decomposing body of a man in nearby Puerto Azul, but its physical description apparently did not match that of Dacer or Corbito because it had a tattoo on the left arm.

A video footage taken from the scene and seen on television last night showed bloodstains on the inside canvas of one of the doors that opened to the driver’s seat.

Police investigators said Dacer’s car was pushed into the ravine by unidentified men.

Southern Tagalog police director Chief Superintendent Lucas Managuelod told reporters yesterday the white Toyota Revo recovered in Barangay Malalim na Bato in Maragondon matched Dacer’s car and bore the same motor number as gleaned from registration documents with the Land Transportation Office.

Managuelod said the car is "intact," except for a broken windshield and missing license plates, and that its compartment and gray seat covers had not been touched.

But Cavite police commander Senior Superintendent Nestor Sanares said the car’s four tires had been replaced with low-quality ones.

Managuelod said Dacer’s car was spotted by a local resident, Augusto de Mesa, at 9 p.m. last Monday after he went to the scene to investigate a "crashing sound" he had heard in the vicinity of the ravine.

Manguelod said De Mesa told him he heard the sound of a car crashing minutes after two vehicles pulled over on the roadside, and that one of these cars was also a white Toyota Revo.

Alarmed over what he had seen, De Mesa immediately reported the matter to barangay chairman Santiago Angge who notified the police, he added.

Dacer was reported missing by one of his staff members after he failed to show up for an appointment with former President Fidel Ramos at his office at the Manila Hotel last Friday.

Crack investigators headed by Southern Police District director Senior Superintendent Manuel Cabigon are coordinating with the Cavite police to solve the case.

President Estrada has ordered the following agencies to take part in the investigation: the five Metro Manila police districts, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, the National Bureau of Investigation, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. — With repors from Paolo Romero, Liberty Dones