Mancao turns state witness, pleads not guilty

Posted on July 1, 2009 blogtopia

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cesar_mancao_yellow MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Justice (DOJ) has agreed to let former police officer Cezar Mancao II stand as state witness in the murders of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.

Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said she approved Mancao’s request to be placed under the government’s witness protection program (WPP), citing the weight of his allegations – contained in an affidavit – as well as threats to his life.

“The requirement of the law (for the WPP) is that there must be the testimony and it must be very material (to the case). And there should also be a serious threat to his life and his family’s life. Mancao has met both criteria,” Devanadera told reporters.

She said there’s nothing wrong with placing Mancao under WPP because he is no longer connected with the police force.

“You cannot apply for WPP if you’re a police officer. But right now is he (Mancao) a law enforcer? He is no longer with the PNP (Philippine National Police),” she explained. She added that Mancao’s being covered by WPP “is something done in all other cases.”

Mancao, who fled to the US in July 2001 at the height of the first investigation into the Dacer-Corbito double murder case, has been under the protective custody of the National Bureau of Investigation since his extradition last June 4. Another suspect and potential state witness, former senior superintendent Glenn Dumlao, is still in the US facing extradition.

Devanadera said she has yet to hear from the lawyers of Dumlao since his failure on June 21 to beat the deadline for the submission of deposition for the extradition case of a third suspect, Michael Ray Aquino, who is also a former police officer.

“There was supposed to be a hearing in New Jersey court but we haven’t heard from his lawyer,” the DOJ chief said. “We don’t have that definite information as to exactly when he will return,” she said.

She said she felt there’s no need to get updates on Dumlao from the Philippine consulate in the US – unlike her predecessor, now presidential chief legal counsel Raul Gonzalez – “because his lawyers have been aggressive enough.” And unlike Gonzalez, Devanadera said she believes the reopening of the double murder case may start even without Dumlao.

“We can proceed without Dumlao. We have our legal processes here and we can proceed with Mancao,” she stressed.

Earlier, Gonzalez said Mancao would have to wait for the arrival of Dumlao before he could testify in the reopening of the case.

The former DOJ chief wanted Mancao and Dumlao to “detonate the bomb together.”

In his first affidavit executed in 2001, Dumlao said it was Aquino who ordered him to “case” and kill Dacer. But in 2003 he executed another affidavit claiming he had been pressured to implicate their former boss and now Sen. Panfilo Lacson in the case. Mancao, in a supposed affidavit executed last Feb. 14, tagged Lacson as mastermind in the killings. It was Mancao’s affidavit that was used as basis by Dacer’s US-based daughters for filing a criminal case against the senator.

“Sen. Lacson not only conspired with the accused in the murders of our father and Mr. Corbito but in fact orchestrated the same,” Dacer’s daughters Carina, Sabina, Emily and Amparo said in a nine-page complaint affidavit filed with the consuls general in New York and California.

“Being then the head of the PAOCTF (Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force) he exercised ascendancy over all members of the task force, particularly those who executed the killings,” the complaint read. “To be sure, the acts of PAOCTF personnel involved before, during and after the gruesome killing of our father and Mr. Corbito could have only been done upon the direction of Sen. Lacson,” the Dacer sisters said.

They said Lacson should also be held liable for allegedly attempting to conceal his participation in the murders by instructing the suspects to hide in the US where he met with them several times.

Armed men snatched Dacer and Corbito in broad daylight on OsmeÒa Highway near the boundary of Manila and Makati in November 2000. Their charred remains were found in Indang in Cavite days later.

Mancao, meanwhile, pleaded “not guilty” to charges of double murder at yesterday’s arraignment of his case at the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 18. Judge Myra Garcia Fernandez set the pre-trial on Aug. 13 at 2 p.m.

Dante David, legal counsel of the other accused, also questioned Mancao’s being allowed to stand as state witness.

“What was the basis for him being considered as a state witness? He was a policeman when the crime happened. The bigger question is that, ëis Mancao qualified to the Witness Protection Program?,” David told reporters outside the courtroom.

“Of course, Col. Mancao knows what is in store for him at the Manila City Jail. We all know that the next place to hell is the Manila City Jail. That’s where he should be. There should be equality before the law. That is my point,” said David.

David is representing three other accused in the Dacer-Corbito case namely SPO 4 Marino Soberano, SPO3 Jose Escalante and PO1 Mauro Torres. David said that the Supreme Court did not allow Soberano to stand as state witness under the RA 6981.

“In as much as Dumlao stands in equal footing with accused Mancao, we do not know how the DOJ expects to allow him entry into the Witness Protection Program if he is disqualified to become state witness,” David said.

Prosecutor John Medina said Mancao is still considered an accused until an official order for his being placed under WPP is released.

More than 100 Manila policemen secured Mancao in his short trip from the NBI headquarters to the courtroom, and back. He said there are also three or four other state witnesses who have detailed knowledge of the double murder case. He did not name them.

Philstar