‘Dacer slay had Estrada, Ping blessing’

Did Bubby Dacer vanish in Malacañang’s shadow?

A senior police officer accused of involvement in the Nov. 24, 2000 kidnapping and murder of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, alleged that the crime had the blessings of then President Joseph Estrada and his most trusted officer, then Philippine National Police chief now Senator-elect Panfilo Lacson.

Superintendent Glenn Dumlao, in a sworn statement, alleged that he was ordered to bomb or burn Dacer’s office at the Manila Hotel to destroy vital documents in the publicist’s possession.

He said the order came from Senior Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino, then operations chief of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) which Lacson headed in a concurrent capacity.

Dumlao tagged Aquino as head of the PAOCTF’s "special ops" (special operations) against Dacer.

Dumlao’s nine-page affidavit was submitted to the Department of Justice on Monday.

He is so far the highest ranking police officer to be implicated in the double murder case.

Dumlao also accused former PAOCTF-Visayas chief Senior Superintendent Teofilo Viña, Chief Inspector Vicente Arnado and a group of task force policemen who did not speak Bicolano, Da-cer’s dialect, of direct involvement in the case.

Senior Superintendent Cesar Mancao, head of the PAOCTF-Luzon, only knew about the "special project" from Aquino, Dumlao said.

He narrated that sometime in January 1999, Aquino directed him to place Da-cer under surveillance, adding he was given P20,000 to rent a room at the Manila Hotel under the false name Irwin Chavez.

Dumlao said he was also instructed to break into Da-cer’s office, steal or destroy whatever documents he could find in the place, and monitor people visiting the office.

Dumlao claimed he failed to break into Dacer’s office because it was strategically located on the third floor of the hotel where there was a monitoring camera.

"Since I could not find a good cover to be there and a good reason to enter any of the rooms/office, I reported to Senior Superintendent Aquino," Dumlao said.

"Kung di kaya, sunugin na lang o pasabugin, masira man lang ang mga dokumento at computers nila (If you can’t enter it, burn it or bomb it, just to destroy their documents or computers)," Dumlao quoted Aquino as telling him.

Dumlao’s superiors were apparently after documents pertaining to the Best World (BW) Resources which was under government investigation for alleged insider trading and stock price manipulation at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) which brought about the near collapse of the local capital market.

Dacer apparently got hold of the controversial documents when BW chairman Dante Tan, reputedly a close ally of Estrada, engaged his services at the height of the probe being conducted by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PSE.

Tan allegedly bankrolled the operations on Dacer to the tune of P50 million which was entrusted to Aquino.

Dumlao said when Mancao inquired about the nature of the operations, Aquino confided that it had the blessings of the Palace.

The plot was tentatively shelved when Dumlao went for schooling in Bangkok, Thailand from Aug. 16 to September 1999.

Upon his return in October of the same year, Dumlao was again directed by Aquino to revive the operations against Dacer.

Dacer and Corbito were subsequently snatched by armed men on Nov. 24, 2000 at the intersection of the South Superhighway (now Osmeña Highway) and Zobel Roxas street at the boundary of Manila and Makati City.

Dacer was reportedly on his way to a meeting with former President Fidel Ramos at the Manila Hotel when he was intercepted by his abductors.

Other suspects arrested earlier admitted that Dacer and Corbito were strangled to death at an isolated place in Indang town in Cavite on the night of their abduction, then burned at a makeshift pyre of wood and discarded car tires.