EDITORIAL - Find Bubby Dacer

You can’t listen to Salvador "Bubby" Dacer carrying on about any topic without wondering who he’s working for this time. In his many years as a public relations practitioner, "the man in white" has had clients from all colors of the political rainbow. Dacer hails from Bicol and maintains ties with his provincemates including Senators Gregorio Honasan and Raul Roco as well as former President Fidel Ramos’ national security adviser Jose Almonte.

Dacer’s ties with Ramos and Almonte prompted Malacañang to link the PR man earlier this year to a purported "3 Ds" plot to spread disinformation that would cause public disaffection and destabilize the administration. At the same time, however, there were rumors that he was working for Malacañang. Almonte scoffed at the alleged plot, saying the administration’s best destabilizer was President Estrada himself.

Dacer served as Ramos’ publicist, at least until the other day when the PR guy went missing. Dacer’s children said they last heard from their father at 10:15 a.m. Friday, when he was on his way to his office at the Manila Hotel. The Skyway management reported that Dacer’s Toyota Revo, driven by family driver Manuel Corbito, exited through the e-pass lane at 10:01 a.m. Dacer told his daughter that he would be at his office in less than an hour. He has not been heard from since. His daughters emphasized yesterday that he would not exploit their anguish for a PR gimmick, and pleaded for help from the police.

In this period of unrest and confusion, there are many scenarios that can be drawn up here. Who stands to be-nefit if the worst fears of Dacer’s children are true? Even as the public speculates, law enforcers must do their best to find Dacer. If this is someone’s idea of a joke, it’s not funny. If it’s a political stunt, the politician should be unmasked; lock him up and throw away the key. And if this is the handiwork of government agents, as some quarters inevitably suspect, it gives credence to text jokes about the intellectual capacity of this administration, which can bungle even a traffic apprehension for a blinker on a governor’s bullet-proof van.

Whatever happened to Dacer, the administration must find him immediately. This is not a time for games, and there’s no place in a democracy for violence and terror tactics.