Another cop in Dacer case surrenders

Another policeman wanted for last year’s kidnap-slay of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Manuel Corbito gave himself up yesterday to deny his alleged complicity in the case.

Inspector Danilo Villanueva, who surrendered to Central Luzon police director Chief Superintendent Enrique Galang, insisted he had nothing to do with the double kidnapping and murder case because he was assigned to the Visayas office of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) from the time it was created up to the time it was disbanded by President Arroyo last April 15.

Villanueva pointed out, however, that he has a nephew, SPO3 Allan Villanueva, who was with the PAOCTF in Luzon.

But Galang pointed out that the arrest warrant issued by Judge Rodolfo Confarado of the Manila Regional Trial Court listed Danilo V. Villanueva, not Allan Villanueva, as one of the suspects.

Galang turned over Villanueva to the Philippine National Police (PNP) criminal investigation and detection group at Camp Crame. "It is now up to the CIDG investigators to find out whether he is lying, or if it was just a case of mistaken identity," Galang said.

Villanueva reportedly surrendered to Galang at Camp Olivas in San Fernando, Pampanga following the arrest of Superintendent Glenn Dumlao in Pasay City the other day.

Dumlao, erstwhile special project officer of the defunct PAOCTF, tagged his former boss, ex-PNP chief now senator-elect Panfilo Lacson as one of the brains behind the Dacer-Corbito murder.

Apart from Lacson, Dumlao also linked Senior Superintendents Michael Ray Aquino and Cesar Mancao, both officials of the PAOCTF, as among the key plotters of the double murder case.

Aquino and Mancao remained closely identified with Lacson even after President Arroyo disbanded the PAOCTF.

Probers are also eyeing the possible involvement of certain businessmen close to jailed former President Joseph Estrada.

Dumlao, apparently upon the advice of his lawyer, refused to give further details about Lacson’s involvement, saying he will talk only before the proper authority.

He admitted, though, through his counsel that he interrogated Dacer at the back of the Metrobank in Dasmariñas, Cavite where the victims were taken after they were snatched at the intersection of Zobel Roxas-Osmeña Highway at the boundary Makati and Manila on Nov. 24.

PNP chief Director General Leandro Mendoza theorized that the murder of Dacer had something to do with the Best World Resources (BW) scandal that brought about the near collapse of the Philippine Stock Exchange last year.

Sources said BW chairman Dante Tan, a known ally of Estrada, funded the operation on Dacer. – Jaime Laude, Ding Cervantes, Ric Sapnu