3 ex-PAOCTF men face Dacer slay rap

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed yesterday double murder charges against four police officials, three of them protégés of controversial Sen. Panfilo Lacson, in connection with last year’s kidnap-slaying of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.

Cited as respondents in the case lodged before the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) were Senior Superintendents Michael Ray Aquino, Cesar Mancao II and Teofilo Viña, and Police Officer 3 Allan Villanueva.

Twenty-two other police officials and civilians were charged in a similar case filed by the DOJ last June before Manila RTC Judge Rodolfo Ponferrada.

The three-member DOJ panel that conducted the preliminary investigation recommended no bail for the accused.

The suspects were mostly former members of the defunct Presidential Anti-Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), which was also headed by Lacson in concurrent capacity as chief of the Philippine National Police.

State Prosecutors Ruben Corretas, Juan Pedro Navera and Geronimo Sy also recommended the dropping of the names of Senior Superintendent Glenn Dumlao and civilians Jimmy Lopez, his brother William Lopez and Alex Diloy as accused for possible conversion as state witnesses.

On the other hand, PO3 Larry Ombre was cleared for lack of evidence.

The probers noted that Aquino "appeared to be the most knowledgeable" about the operations, while Mancao was tagged as "equally culpable" since both men acted as "strategic planners" in the operation against Dacer.

Corretas said Aquino was managing the entire operation through a cellular phone.

The prosecutors also said the flight of Aquino and Mancao to the United States further supported "established evidence of their collective and individual guilt as conspirators in the case."

Viña was cited as "tactical leader" who took care of the operational assignments of the individual members of the entire operation. "Whether strategic or tactical, Viña was clearly a principal by direct participation. The proof of the conspiracy is most frequently made by evidence of the chain of circumstances," the panel’s report stated.

"Being part of the cabal and conspiracy to kill Dacer and Corbito... the fact that he (Viña) was not physically present in Indang, Cavite during the murders is not an exculpatory matter," it added.

Viña, former PAOCTF chief for the Visayas, admitted to the DOJ investigators in a clarificatory hearing last Aug. 31 that he was in Manila on Nov. 25 last year, a day after Dacer and Corbito were snatched by unidentified armed men along the Osmeña Superhighway bear the boundary of Manila and Makati City.

Ponferrada has set the arraignment of the accused on Sept. 25.