NBI agents resume search for missing PR man, driver

The search for missing publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer continues.

Newly installed National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Reynaldo Wycoco has dispatched agents in Northern Luzon and Mindanao to find the public relations man and his driver who have been missing for over two months.

Dacer and his driver Manuel Corbito were abducted by armed men last Nov. 24 along the South Super Highway in Manila while on their way to the PR man’s Manila Hotel office.

"We have good leads on the Dacer case," said Wycoco in a chance interview during his visit to his former office at the Eastern Police District in Pasig City.

However, Wycoco refused to divulge more details on the new developments on the Dacer case for fear that this might jeopardize the ongoing operations.

Initial reports by lawyer Samuel Ong, officer-in-charge of the Dacer case, showed encouraging signs that the case may be solved soon, the NBI chief said.

According to Wycoco, Ong has dispatched agents in Northern Luzon and Mindanao to follow up the case but his men have yet to file their reports.

While former acting NBI director Carlos Caabay categorically said that Dacer and Corbito are still alive, Wycoco refused to comment pending the resolution of the case.

"My men are pushing themselves to the limit just to crack open and solve the Dacer case. I am confident that we will soon get to the bottom of Bubby’s disappearance," Wycoco added.

Meanwhile, Bohol Rep. Ernesto Herrera said Wycoco "should spare no effort in solving" the case of Dacer, who disappeared in the run-up to the impeachment trial of ousted President Joseph Estrada.

Herrera said the NBI should look into the statement of former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Perfecto Yasay Jr. that the publicist’s disappearance was "politically motivated."

"Many quarters suspect that Dacer’s abduction was somehow politically motivated. Owing to the sensitive nature of the case, the authorities should leave no stone unturned in solving it," Herrera pointed out.

In the impeachment trial of Estrada, Yasay intimated that Dacer could have stumbled on information that could shed light on the alleged fraudulent trading of BW Resources shares. BW owner Dante Tan is a former client of Dacer.

Three days after his abduction, the publicist’s Toyota Revo was found ditched in a shallow ravine in Maragondon, Cavite.

Upon his assumption to office Wycoco vowed to work on three priority cases ordered investigated by Justice Secretary Hernani Perez, including the Dacer case.

The two other cases are the Dec. 30 bombings, including that of the Light Rail Transit in Sta. Cruz, Manila which left 22 people dead and scores injured, and the alleged mansions owned by the mistresses of Estrada.

Wycoco assigned lawyer Efren Meneses to work on the Rizal Day bombings and Caabay to look into the mansions.

"Since I took over the position, the instruction to me by Secretary Perez is to solve the three cases the soonest time possible," he said. – Non Alquitran, Mike Frialde, Jaime Laude