Six new witnesses to testify on Dacer case

Six new witnesses, four of them former agents of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, (PAOCTF), will testify on the mastermind of the Nov. 24 kidnap-murder of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer.

Justice Secretary Hernando Perez announced at a press conference that the Philippine National Police (PNP) is just awaiting the "completion of affidavits" of these witnesses, including two civilians, on the killing of Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.

"The affidavits will extend to those who ordered the killing. The statements will be presented this week. They expect the masterminds to be named within the week," he told newsmen, although he hinted at the identity of the mastermind.

When asked whether the mastermind had a higher rank than Senior Superintendent Teofilo Viña, chief of PAOCTF-Visayas who is the highest official implicated so far, Perez nodded and smilingly insinuated that it was Viña’s boss.

Though he refused to name outright the PAOCTF official, Perez gave the description of former PNP chief Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, now a senatorial candidate, who the justice secretary said is now "making rounds in the country" and enjoying his "tour."

"Yung isa nga libot nang libot, di ko alam kung nagto-tour. Ang balita pa namin libot nang libot ng bansa (One who is constantly on the hustings as if on tour)," Perez said jokingly, bursting into laughter with some reporters.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) chief said this piece of information was relayed to him by PNP chief Director General Leandro Mendoza in a meeting of Cabinet Cluster E on national security last Saturday at the Manila Hotel.

Perez ruled out, however, the possibility of ousted President Joseph Estrada’s involvement in the grisly crime, saying the evidence that they have so far proves that only PAOCTF men were involved.

"Mukhang di kasama ang dating amo. Tinanong na nga namin ’yun (It looks like their old boss was not in on it. We already asked that)," he said.

But highly reliable sources revealed that the Dacer family is in the process of contacting a very close friend of the murdered PR man to whom the latter confided his problems with Estrada

Two suspects in the murders — Alex Diloy, 37, and Jimmy Lopez, 41 — earlier admitted to the crime and said Dacer and Corbito were hogtied, strangled to death with lengths of electrical cord and their bodies later burned.

Double murder charges were filed against them by the National Bureau of Investigation before the DOJ. The preliminary investigation, which will be headed by State Prosecutor Ruben Carretas, will start April 23.

Viña was implicated in the Dacer case after NBI agents found that he designated Lopez as an SPO2 when he was in fact a farmer and was issued a mission order with two others telling them to proceed to Regions 4, 6, 7 and 8 "to carry out the confidential instruction of the PAOCTF chief."

Forensic experts from the University of the Philippines last week established that the remains found along a creek in Indang, Cavite were indeed Dacer’s and Corbito’s.

But the NBI said yesterday the findings of the UP forensic experts were not conclusive. –With Christina Mendez, Mike Frialde