How high does it go?

There are two questions begging for an answer in the murder of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito: Who ordered the killing, and why? The answers can’t be provided by the two Cavite farmers who have admitted participation in one aspect of the crime: the murder itself.

Farmers Jimmy Lopez and Alex Diloy told the National Bureau of Investigation that at least six members of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task force had brought the two victims to a garage owned by Lopez’s brother William on the night of Nov. 24 last year in Indang, Cavite. Blindfolded and trussed up, Dacer and Corbito were then taken to a creek where they were strangled to death with a length of electric cord, the farmers said. The bodies were burned and the remains buried, Lopez and Diloy told the NBI. Some of the PAOCTF members identified by the two farmers now face double murder charges.

Lopez and Diloy were not present when the victims were waylaid earlier that day near the boundary of Manila and Makati. Another witness, however, has identified at least one PAOCTF member as one of the kidnappers.

If the witnesses are telling the truth, this crime has the fingerprints of the PAOCTF written all over it. But why would members of this elite police unit want Dacer dead and his remains reduced to ashes? Only the person who ordered the PAOCTF members to launch this operation can answer that question. But the highest ranking police officer linked so far to the double murder has reportedly gone missing.

You need a particularly deep grudge to want someone kidnapped and brutally murdered. And you need to be in a position of power to order a team from the nation’s most pampered police unit to carry out the job, and expect them to keep quiet about it. Who could have wanted Bubby Dacer dead? Because of the alleged involvement of PAOCTF members, it’s inevitable that public suspicion will focus on the previous administration. And it’s inevitable that people will wonder how high the blame will go.