FVR says Dacer still alive; 2 suspects freed

Former President Fidel Ramos said yesterday he believes that missing public relations man Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, are still alive.

Ramos told reporters his confidence is based on intelligence reports which he has been receiving on the Dacer kidnapping case.

Earlier, acting National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Carlos Caabay said they have information that Dacer and Corbito are being kept somewhere in Southern Tagalog

Lawyer Samuel Ong, NBI chief for Metro Manila, also told reporters yesterday that Dacer and Corbito are alive because they have not yet seen their bodies nor have they received reports that they are dead.

"We have every reason to believe that they are still alive," he said.

Two suspected kidnappers of Dacer, who were arrested early yesterday morning in Pampanga, were freed later in the afternoon because the two witnesses failed to identify them in a line-up.

Ong told reporters Efren Moyo and Myrna Tapnio were picked up at Moyo’s house at Homesite Extension 2 Subdivision in Barangay Dolores in Angeles City following a tip-off from a woman informant that she personally knows that the two are involved in Dacer’s abduction.

"A woman came to our office last Monday night and claimed that the suspects in the abduction are hiding in Barangay Dolores, Angeles City," he said. "I told my counterparts at the CIDG that it was worth checking."

Ong said Moyo was released because he has wavy hair in contrast to the statement of the two witnesses that one of Dacer’s abductors had curly hair.

The informant also had a grudge against Moyo and Tapnio, and she could have led the NBI to them as a means of getting back after the suspects had evicted her as a boarder a few a months ago, he added.

Ong said Moyo is a former agent of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Tarlac, while Tapnio is a CIDG employee assigned at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

Ong said the arresting officers were armed with a search warrant from Judge Omar Viola of the Angeles City Regional Trial Court. – Jose Aravilla, Mike Frialde, Ric Sapnu