DOJ to reopen Dacer probe

A Manila court has paved the way for the indictment, in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case, of two of Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s former deputies by granting last Friday the Department of Justice motion to reconsider the involvement of the now-retired ranking police officials.

Judge Rodolfo Ponferrada of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 41 gave the DOJ 20 days to complete its reinvestigation in view of the new evidence against Senior Superintendents Cesar Mancao and Michael Ray Aquino, both former top officials of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF). Lacson, former Philippine National Police director general, once concurrently headed the task force.

Aquino and Mancao were among the four newly-implicated persons in the Nov. 24 abduction and slay of public relations executive Bubby Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, based on the statement of the highest-ranked suspect in the case, Superintendent Glen Dumlao. The others Dumlao named in his affidavit following his surrender last month were PO3 Larry Ambre and a certain Rigor.

Dacer and Corbito were abducted by heavily armed men along Zobel street in Manila. They were later reportedly strangled and their bodies burned in Indang, Cavite, based on the testimony of three PAOCTF civilian agents turned state witnesses.

According to Dumlao, Aquino and Mancao were privy to the elaborate plan to kill Dacer. Dumlao said that prior to the abduction Aquino had ordered him to conduct a surveillance of Dacer’s Manila hotel office and later to blow it up.

The revelation of Dumlao, prompted the DOJ to ask the court to grant a reinvestigation for the inclusion of the PAOCTF officials.

The DOJ earlier filed double murder charges against 22 policemen and civilian agents of PAOCTF, including three serving as state witnesses.

Judge Ponferrada also set the arraignment of the accused on July 30. Six of the suspects remain at large. The three witnesses are in the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), while the rest are being held by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Camp Crame. Others charged were Inspector Danilo Villanueva, Chief Inspector Vicente Arnado, and Inspector Roberto Langcauon, Senior Police Officer 4 Mariano Soberano, SPO3 Mauro Torres, SPO3 Jose Escalante, Crisostomo Purification, Digo de Pedro, Renato Malabanan, Margarito Cuenco, and Rommel Rolan, who are all in the custody of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group. Others who remain at large are SPO4 Benjamin Taladua, SPO1 Rolando Lacasandile, Insp. Danilo Villanueva, SPO1 Marion Sarmiento, SPO1 William Reed, SPO1 Ruperto Nemeno, and PO2 Thomas Sarmiento. – Jose Aravilla