Dacer case: DOJ to indict 18

The government is set to file charges against 11 former agents of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) and seven other persons in connection with the kidnap-slaying of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.

National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) national capital region chief Samuel Ong said justice department lawyers were supposed to file the charges before the Manila City Prosecutor’s Office at around 4:30 p.m. yesterday but this could not be confirmed at presstime.

According to Ong, the PAOCTF men to be charged are Superintendent Glen Dumlao, Chief Inspector Boy Arnado, Inspector Bobby Lancauan, Senior Police Officer 4 Boy Caladuan, SPO4 Mauro Torres, one SPO3 Villanueva, SPO1 Mario Sarmiento, SPO1 William Reed, SPO1 Ruperto Nemeno, one PO3 Lacasandile and PO2 Thomas Sarmiento.

Also to be charged are civilians Crisostomo Ortigacion, Digo de Pedro, Renato Malabanan, Margarito Cueno, Rommel Ryal and two unidentified men, Ong said.

The 18 men are to be charged on the basis of the testimony of state witnesses Jimmy Lopez, his brother William and Alex Diloy, who are also accomplices to the crime.

Notably absent from the list of suspects was Senior Superintendent Teofilo Viña, the former head of PAOCTF-Visayas, allegedly the one who coordinated the kidnapping and brutal double murder.

"We don’t have a good case against him. The testimony against him is hearsay. We don’t want to doctor evidence just to implicate him," said Ong, who claimed the cases were ready to be filed as early as Thursday last week.

The Lopezes and Diloy tagged Viña as the team leader of the PAOCTF agents who were implicated in the double-murder and also issued the caliber .45 automatic that was recovered from Lopez.

But the NBI has so far failed to build a case against Viña, who maintains his innocence of the crime and even lambasted the NBI for charging him "by innuendo and not in the proper court."

As PAOCTF-Visayas chief, Viña used to report to retired national police and PAOCTF head Director General Panfilo Lacson, who is now running for the Senate.

Police have claimed breakthroughs in the Dacer-Corbito double-murder case and no less than President Arroyo congratulated NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco for supposedly solving the case.

Dacer and his driver were abducted by four armed men while the publicist was en route to his office at the posh Manila Hotel where he was to meet with former President Fidel V. Ramos, one of his powerful clients.

Dacer was supposed to turn over to Ramos certain documents about a "bombshell" that the then-opposition was planning to unleash against the Estrada administration.

Dacer and Corbito were abducted by armed men at the intersection of South Superhighway and Zobel Roxas street in Manila at around 11 a.m. of Nov. 24.

Dacer’s white Toyota Revo was later found abandoned in a shallow ravine in Cavite but police did not reveal if forensic evidence was ever found on the vehicle.

According to Diloy and Lopez, six PAOCTF agents later delivered the two victims to a garage owned by Jimmy’s brother William in the evening of Nov. 24.

Jimmy admitted that he gathered wood and discarded car tires for a pyre along a creek at Barangay Bona Lejos I in Indang, Cavite, an area residents tagged as a common site for summary executions.

After Jimmy gathered the wood and tires, the two bound and gagged victims were brought to the site at around 8 p.m.

William Lopez strangled Dacer with a length of wire while another suspect, Digo de Pedro, strangled Corbito and later doused their bodies with petrol and set them afire.

The suspects, including the police officers, stood by to make sure the fire had fully engulfed the bodies and then left one by one.

Both Diloy and Lopez led NBI agents to the scene of the crime where they found charred bones and teeth which were later identified to belong to Dacer and Corbito.

The Lopezes and Diloy later tagged 13 other co-conspirators but authorities have yet to establish the motive or mastermind of the gruesome crime.

The NBI invited no less than former Presidents Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada, both client-friends of Dacer, to reveal whatever information they may have.