Mancao ready to surrender, apologize

MANILA, Philippines - After almost two years in hiding, former police superintendent Cezar Mancao finally surfaced yesterday.

Mancao, who escaped from the National Bureau of Investigation in 2013, said he was ready to surrender and apologize to former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada and former senator Panfilo Lacson for linking them to the double murder of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in 2000.

Mancao also extended an apology to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima for his escape.

 “I apologize to the people I wrongly linked to the case, particularly to senator Lacson. I besmirched his reputation to the point that he had to hide. To president Erap (Estrada), who I also mentioned in the case,” Mancao said.

“I maligned senator Lacson’s name and reputation. I caused hardships and feel I really had to apologize. I know senator Lacson for decades. He’s been consistent, respectable, sensible, incorruptible and fearless,” he added.

Mancao admitted making the wrong accusation against Estrada and Lacson, along with several other personalities, claiming some officials of the previous administration under former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo were pressuring him.

“People were dictating my actions. They made an affidavit for me to sign, which I stood by in courts,” Mancao said, adding that he will reveal everything he knows at the proper time.

“I don’t want to die while in hiding like Marwan,” Mancao said later in a radio interview, referring to the Malaysian bomber Zulkifli bin Hir, who was killed in the bloody police operation in Maguindanao last month.

Mancao said he owed an apology to Estrada after mentioning him in the case though he was not included in the charge sheet.

“I feel I disrespected him. I am seeking his forgiveness,” he added.

Mancao contacted select members of media to help facilitate his surrender to the authorities. As of press time, he has yet to disclose where and to whom he would yield.

Forgiven

For his part, Lacson said he has forgiven Mancao and the other people who persecuted him, an experience that, he said, gave him opportunity to know who his true friends are.

“More than the persecution of innocent people, what Cezar Mancao did four years ago spoke of his weak character. Surely, I know all those who committed incriminatory machination, even subornation of perjury by the assigned prosecutor herself and I will never forget their names,” Lacson said in a text message to The STAR.

“Regardless, I have already forgiven all of them. In a way, I thank them for letting me know who my true friends are,” he added.

Estrada, on the other hand, said he was glad that Mancao would finally surface.

“It’s good that he is now surfacing and will face all these. I am not a bit worried about it because I am not a party to it,” Estrada said.

Estrada said the late Dacer was his kumpadre and close friend.

“He (Dacer) was visiting me in Malacañang. His daughter is my goddaughter in her baptismal and in her wedding. I have seen her grow up. He even wrote a book about me. I do not know anything about it. He was my kumpadre,” the former president said.

Mancao was among those named principal accused in the murders of Dacer and Corbito in November 2000.

Mancao had agreed to turn state witness against the other co-accused and identify the brains behind the slaying. He had executed an affidavit naming his former police boss, Lacson, as among the principal suspects in the killing.

Lacson was then chief of the Philippine National Police and head of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), the group tagged behind the disappearance of Dacer and Corbito.

In May 2013, Mancao escaped from the NBI’s detention facility a day before he was to be transferred to the Manila City Jail.

Mancao claimed there were threats to his life at the time so he escaped.

According to Mancao, he was touched and enlightened by the visit of Pope Francis last month and felt enlightened that he had to do the right thing.

“I was touched and enlightened by Pope Francis’ mercy and compassion. I am not a bad person. I am a man of the law and I did good to my countrymen,” he said.

Come clean

De Lima, on the other hand, called on Mancao to come clean and tell the truth surrounding the Dacer-Corbito case.

“I hope that if Mancao does in fact resurface, he comes clean this time. He must tell us the plain and naked truth about that still unresolved mystery which is the Dacer-Corbito murder case. That’s the only way for Mancao to redeem himself, given his lost credibility borne by his flip-flopping and contradictory statements (and) testimonies,” De Lima said.

De Lima said the NBI would continue to hunt Mancao since he is considered a fugitive. – Cecille Suerte Felipe, Rey Galupo, Jose Rodel Clapano, Mike Frialde, Evelyn Macairan