Another cop in Dacer slay case yields

Another police officer involved in the abduction and slaying of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his aide Emmanuel Corbito has surrendered, according to a top official of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Chief Superintendent Nestorio Gualberto, director of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), presented Senior Police Officer 1 Ruperto Aguila Nemeno to mediamen yesterday, a day after a Manila court issued arrest warrants against 22 police officers and civilian agents of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF).

Gualberto said the suspect surrendered to the PNP on Sunday and confessed to his role in the Nov. 24 abduction. Like the other suspects now in police custody, Nemeno said their commanders had misled them as to the identity of their captives.

"We were made to believe that they (Dacer and Corbito) were leaders of a notorious kidnap and car theft ring" said Nemeno, who had been assigned to the PAOCTF Luzon group. He admitted that he was the one who had flagged down Dacer’s white Toyota Revo van and forced the publicist and his driver to board a white Mitsubishi Lancer in the morning of Nov. 24 at the corner of Osmeña Highway and Zobel street in Manila near the Makati boundary. He likewise implicated other police officials not mentioned by the other suspects. The CIDG refused to provide details.

Nemeno’s admission bolstered earlier testimonies by detained suspects SPO4 Mariano Soberano and SPO3 Mauro Torres that Dacer and Corbito had been abducted in Manila and taken to Cavite on orders of Chief Inspector Vicente Arnado, who remains at large. – Christina Mendez and Jaime Laude