Mancao due in Florida court on Dec. 3

CHICAGO, Illinois – Former Philippine police officer Cezar Ochoco Mancao II is due in court on Dec. 3 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, following his arrest on extradition charges, it was learned Tuesday. Mancao, 47, a resident of Plantation, Broward County, Florida, was arrested Nov. 20 to face extradition for the double murder of publicist Salvador “Bubby" Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, eight years ago in the Philippines. Court records obtained by this reporter showed that Mancao is due in court at 11 a.m. on Dec. 3 before Magistrate Judge Barry S. Seltzer of the United States District of Southern District of Florida in Fort Lauderdale. Mancao, former head of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) for Luzon and superintendent of the Philippine National Police, will face an extradition hearing starting at 1 p.m. on Jan. 20, 2009 before Magistrate Judge Lurana S. Snow also in Fort Lauderdale. Mancao has been assigned a temporary counsel in Michael Schutt, a lawyer based in Pampano Beach, Florida. In issuing the warrant of arrest for Mancao, Judge Snow based her decision on an eight-page complaint, “In the Matter of Extradition of Cezar Ochoco Mancao II," filed on Sept. 24, 2008 by Assistant US Attorney Jennifer A. Keene. The complaint was filed on behalf of the “Government of the Republic of the Philippines (the Requesting State)" based on the treaty between the Philippines and the US. It says Mancao “is duly and legally charged with having committed in the jurisdiction of the Requesting State, the offense of Double Murder." Manila Regional Trial Court Judge Myra V. Garcia-Fernandez issued a warrant for the arrest of Mancao on April 28, 2006. Mancao, Michael Ray Aquino and Glenn Dumlao were former members of the PNP and PAOCTF with Aquino as chief of PAOCTF’s Operations Division and Dumlao as deputy chief of operations. On Nov. 24, 2000 at around 10 a.m., Salvador Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, were abducted at the intersection of Zobel Roxas St. and Osmeňa Highway in Manila. Police Officers Thomas J. Sarmiento and Ruperto A. Nemena were among the abductors. Sarmiento’s group took Dacer and Corbito to Dasmariňas, Cavite. On that same day and around noon, police Chief Insp. Vicente Arnado informed Jose Escalante over the phone that the PAOCTF had a police operation. Escalante called SPO4 Marino Soberano and Crisostomo Purificacion and told them they would meet at the back of the Metrobank branch in Dasmariňas, Cavite. When Soberano and Purificacion arrived at the designated place, they met the group of Dumlao, Arnado, Sarmiento, SPO4 Benjamin Taladua, Insp. Roberto Langaoun, SPO3 Allan Cadenilla Villanueva, SPO1 William Reed, SPO1 Rolando Lacasandile and other unidentified men. When asked what the operation was about, Arnado said it was already accomplished as they had with them the members of the “kidnapping and carnapping gang." With an order to kill Dacer and Corbito, Dumlao and his group turned over the victims to Soberano and Escalante. Dacer and Corbito were brought to barangay Buna Lejos, Indang, Cavite. At about 8 p.m. that same day, Dacer and Corbito were brought to a creek in barangay Buna Lejos, where they were killed by strangulation and burned. On Sept. 17, 2001, an amended information discharged Dumlao and three others as accused because they had become state witnesses in which Dumlao described “in detail his participation and that of Aquino and Mancao in the murder of Dacer and Corbito." The trial court denied the amended information. On appeal, the Supreme Court “directed the re-inclusion of Dumlao as an accused and sustained the charging of Mancao and Aquino." - GMANews.TV