NBI won’t give up yet on Lacson’s boys in Dacer case

The National Bureau of Investigation is now studying whether former Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force officials, Senior Superintendents Michael Ray Aquino, Cezar Mancao, and Teofilo Viña could still be linked to the abduction and murder of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.

It will be recalled that a Manila Regional Trial Court last week denied a move by government prosecutors to include the three former PAOCTF officers in the charge sheet due to an alleged violation of legal procedures.

But according to an NBI source, Aquino, former PAOCTF operations chief; Mancao, former PAOCTF- Luzon chief; and Viña, former PAOCTF-Visayas chief; could still be implicated in the case by using the conspiracy theory.

"We are studying if we can cite the conspiracy theory, since all ranking PAOCTF officials were involved. They could not have acted individually," the source said.

Aquino and Mancao were included in an amended charge sheet, based on a statement by former PAOCTF member Superintendent Glenn Dumlao.

It will be recalled that the NBI had linked several PAOCTF officers and men to the case. Dacer and Corbito were snatched along the Sergio Osmeña (formerly South Superhighway) near the Makati-Manila boundary last Nov. 24.

They were reportedly on their way to the Manila Hotel office of Dacer where he was allegedly supposed to meet former President Fidel Ramos, a client of his.

Investigation showed that Dacer and Corbito were later taken by their abductors to Indang, Cavite, where they were killed and their remains burned. – Mike Frialde and Cecille Suerte Felipe