Whatever happened to Egay Bentain?

Before missing PR man Salvador "Bubby" Dacer, there was Edgar Bentain.

And Egay – as his loved ones call him – in his father’s own words, was the "the first man to give us an idea of who Erap was really like."

After all, he was the man who released the video clip showing then Vice President Joseph Estrada and his friend Charlie "Atong" Ang playing high-stakes baccarat at the Heritage Hotel casino on Sept. 15, 1996.

He used to work as a technician for the casino’s closed-circuit television system.

On Jan. 16, 1999, Egay disappeared without a trace shortly after he stepped out of the Casino Filipino of the Grand Boulevard Hotel along Roxas Boulevard.

He was with his girlfriend, Cecille Subido, his brother Edwin and Edwin’s Vietnamese wife Hung. His family believes he was abducted and his disappearance was connected to the controversial videotape he was supposed to have leaked.

Manuel Morato, former chair of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, identified Edgar, 36, as the source of a video footage that showed Estrada and Ang playing baccarat. Also caught in the video clip was Butch Tenorio, who was then the casino’s general manager.

The footage was shown two months before the May 1998 presidential elections, apparently to discredit Estrada. The STAR broke the story on Bentain’s case about a month after he was believed to have been abducted.

But two years since his disappearance, Egay’s case remains a mystery. As to whodunit, his family can only surmise. Both the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group have dropped the case.

And yet, when Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis ‘Chavit’ Singson blew the whistle on Estrada’s alleged direct links to illegal gambling in the country, the missing man’s father, UP police chief, Col. Eduardo Bentain, found new hope.

He told The STAR that in November last year, he met with the governor at his Blue Ridge, Quezon City residence. Singson, he said, promised to help him. "He told me he would call me up when he gets wind of any information on my son’s case," he said.

Until now, however, he has yet to hear from the governor.

"We want to know what happened to him," said the 63-year-old father, who still hopes his son might still be alive. He said that only a few days back, he received calls from employees at PAGCOR telling him that Tenorio knew about his son’s disappearance. "Tenorio should be called to account for my son’s disappearance," he told The STAR in an interview last week.

He said his wife, who is in the United States, will be coming back to help him find the truth about Egay’s disappearance. The missing Bentain left behind two children, a five-year-old son who is in kindergarten and a daughter who is only two years old.

Friends and relatives have been supportive of the family. During the four-day People Power II at the EDSA Shrine, they carried a large banner demanding justice for the missing man. They even hang one banner at a prominent spot on the stage.

When the broad-based groups called for a march to Mendiola to press Estrada to step down, the Bentain family and their supporters heeded the call, and with the banner in tow, marched to the historic street leading to Malacañang.

Dacer and Bentain are among at least 20 persons who were reported victims of involuntary disappearances under the Estrada administration, according to the militant human rights group Karapatan.

The former, a public relations man well-known among media circles, disappeared late last year shortly after he met with Mr. Estrada in Malacañang. Dacer is said to have had access to an inner circle of the deposed President’s men who were involved in the controversial BW Resources stock manipulation scandal.

Until now, the PR man’s whereabouts remain unknown. His family likewise, has sought for the investigation of his disappearance. Civic groups have also supported calls for an investigation of Dacer’s disappearance, saying it should be included in a probe by a fact-finding commission they want the new President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, to create to investigate the alleged crimes of the Estrada administration.

"They should not only investigate Mr. Dacer’s case," Col. Bentain said. "They should not forget that it was my son who started all of this."