Lacson: No role in Dacer

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Panfilo Lacson yesterday denied allegations that he ordered the killing of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito eight years ago.

“I will repeat what I have said time and time again,” he said. “I can look anybody straight in the eye and say that I am not involved in the Dacer-Corbito killings. And I will not stop fighting corruption, which has doomed generations of Filipinos to poverty.”

Former police intelligence chief Reynaldo Berroya, now transportation assistant secretary, has a “personal ax” to grind against him because he sent him to prison for kidnapping, Lacson said.

Quoting reliable sources, Ang Pilipino Star Ngayon and PM columnist Tony Calvento reported in The STAR yesterday that former police superintendent Cezar Mancao said in his affidavit – executed in Florida on Feb. 14 this year – that Lacson ordered the execution of Dacer. Calvento said yesterday he was standing by his story on the affidavit that narrated Lacson’s role.

Lacson said he had nothing to do with the Dacer-Corbito murders and dared the Department of Justice to make public the affidavit of Mancao.

“Truth is my biggest ally in this issue, and if it’s the truth that will prevail, I am very confident that no harm will come to me,” he said.

However, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez refused to

confirm if Mancao indeed pointed to Lacson as the alleged mastermind in the killing of Dacer and Corbito.

“I will not talk specifics because Mancao has not even testified yet,” he said.

“What if he comes home and he will change his mind, although as I said I doubt if he can? We can still be sued for libel there. If it (affidavit) is filed already, then it’s okay.”

Gonzalez said the story of Calvento on the contents of Mancao’s affidavit was “not completely accurate.”

“It (report) can’t be accurate because some details there don’t appear in the affidavit that I have,” he said.

“Those details on the supposed meeting of Senator Lacson with his men in the US and his order to find the properties of the First Gentleman in the US never appeared in this Mancao affidavit.”

Mancao’s statement about overhearing Lacson giving orders to former police superintendent Michael Ray Aquino in the backseat of a car was not included in the new affidavit he signed last Feb. 14 in Broward County, Florida, he added.

Gonzalez said he keeps two copies of Mancao’s affidavit on the Dacer- Corbito case.

One of the affidavits is kept in a vault in a Metrobank branch in Iloilo province, he added.

Gonzalez said Calvento’s copy of Mancao’s affidavit and the copy that he holds have “a big difference.”

However, some portions in Calvento’s story “jibed” with the Mancao affidavit that he is keeping, he added.

Gonzalez said some salient details in Mancao’s new affidavit were already mentioned in Calvento’s story.

He does not know where Calvento got a copy of Mancao’s affidavit, he added.

Gonzalez said Mancao did mention the names of Reynaldo Oximoso Sr., alias “Oxi,” driver of the vehicle, and Chief Inspector Vicente Arnado, an agent of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, who was tasked to snatch Dacer.

Former President Joseph Estrada was also mentioned in the affidavit of Mancao, he added.

Gonzalez said Estrada was referred to in Mancao’s affidavit under the codename “Bigote.”

“Whatever it is mentioned about Erap (Estrada), it is not strong,” he said.

Lacson said what are coming out now about his alleged involvement in the Dace-Corbito murders are “mere innuendoes,” and that he did not want to respond to them.

“I simply reiterate my call to those concerned to make public Mancao’s affidavit to once and for all stop all speculations regarding my supposed involvement, which I categorically deny,” he said.

Lacson said he had not seen any of the three affidavits that Mancao supposedly executed since he left for the United States in 2001. 

“Now they have a third one, but until and unless I see these affidavits, particularly the latest, then pardon me, because I will not respond or react to all these innuendoes,” he said.

Lacson said Malacañang and its allies, particularly Berroya, would not stop trying to put him in jail because of his exposés on alleged corruption in the Arroyo administration.

“What else is new?” he asked.

“What do you expect? As always, he’s praying for my downfall ever since. And rightly so because I sent him to jail, but his incarceration was not my fault because he was convicted of kidnapping.

“So maybe (Berroya) cannot forget this, so each time he gets an opportunity, naghahanap siya ng butas para mapahamak ako (he finds a loophole to implicate me),” he said.

Lacson said if Berroya was telling the truth, why did he not use the evidence supposedly in his possession when he was in the Philippine National Police many years ago.

“He was the chief of the intelligence group and he was saying that he was the custodian of Glenn Dumlao,” he said.

Lacson said since the Arroyo administration came to power in 2001, he had been the subject of an unrelenting vilification drive.

“All sorts of lies have been thrown my way – hidden wealth and illegal activities among them – and eventually proven baseless. The Dacer-Corbito is just the latest innuendo thrown at me,” he said.

“There is only one reason for this smear campaign: I have been consistent and unflinching in my crusade against corruption.”

Palace to secure Mancao, Dumlao

Malacañang will ensure the safety of former police superintendents Mancao and Dumlao upon their arrival from the US.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said the public is anticipating what the two former police officials would be disclosing in their testimonies on the kidnapping and murders of Dacer and Corbito.

“We want them here alive so that everybody can hear what they (Dumlao and Mancao) have to say and that justice will be served,” she said.

Fajardo said since high-profile politicians are being mentioned as masterminds in the crime, heightened political tension would be “unavoidable.”

“That’s why we have to be prepared and sober,” she said.

Securing the two witnesses wound be the job of Secretary Gonzalez, Fajardo said.

Mancao’s date of extradition will be known within the week, a source at the National Bureau of Investigation said yesterday.

The source said lawyer Claro de Castro Jr., chief of the NBI-Interpol Division, and lawyer Ricardo Diaz, chief of the Anti-Terrorism Division, arrived in Los Angeles yesterday morning, Manila time.

They are making preparations to escort Dumlao back to the Philippines, the source added.

Dumlao will be extradited ahead of Mancao, according to the source. -–WIth Edu Punay, Paolo Romero, Sandy Araneta