Mancao testifies on ‘operation’ to kill Dacer

Former police Senior Superintendent Cezar Mancao II on Wednesday told a Manila court that his unit had operations to carry out the killing of veteran publicist Salvador “Bubby" Dacer in November 2000. “(Mancao) continued his testimony before the court where he talked about 'Operation Delta,' the operation to kill publicist Bubby Dacer," Mancao’s laywer, Ferdinand Topacio, told GMANews.TV in a phone interview. Mancao was an official of the now defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), which was then headed by police chief and now Senator Panfilo Lacson. GMANews.TV tried to get Lacson's side but he was not answering his phone. He has repeatedly denied involvement in the crime. Topacio said Mancao clarified earlier reports saying that he told the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 18 that he reported directly to former President Joseph Estrada, who is also being linked to the killings of Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito. “(Mancao) did not say he took direct orders from President Estrada. Rather it was the head of the PAOCTF, who was General Lacson, who took direct orders," Topacio said. "Best is yet to come" Topacio declined to provide further details on what transpired on Wednesday’s hearing, but he said that "the best is yet to come" on September 3 when the Manila RTC resumes its hearing on the Dacer-Corbito case. Asked if he meant Mancao would divulge more incriminating details of the twin killings, Topacio said: “Yes." Topacio said their camp is hoping that with Mancao’s testimony, the court would decide to make the former police officer a state witness in the case. Mancao’s Feb. 13, 2009 affidavit mentioned that his subordinates at the PAOCTF took part in "special operations" to "neutralize" a media man critical of Estrada. Mancao added that the operations had the approval of Malacañang, or the Office of the President. Estrada had repeatedly denied he had a hand in the twin killings, let alone having any motives to finish off Dacer, who the former president said was his close friend. Face-to-face with Dumlao Last August 13, Mancao failed to attend the pretrial of the case because of illness. In Wednesday’s hearing, he and his former PAOCTF colleague, former Superintendent Glenn Dumlao, met face-to-face for the first time. Manila RTC is also hearing the motion of Dumlao’s camp to have him removed in the charge sheet of the Dacer-Corbito killings. "On June 7, 2006, the prosecution...filed a Compliance with attached Amended Information re-including (Dumlao) as among the accused," a portion of the motion read. In October 2005, the Supreme Court already discharged Dumlao, but the prosecutors in the case added him again in June 2006. Dumlao’s legal counsel, Rogelio Agoot, said the prosecutors have already acknowledged that they made a mistake in including Dumlao in the list of the suspects. “There was an honest mistake committed on their part when they filed amended information dated May 4, 2006," Agoot said in interview on dzBB radio. - GMANews.TV