by Tina Santos
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Former Senior Supt. Cezar Mancao II Thursday testified at the Manila Regional Trial Court that he was offered financial support and relocation abroad by an official of the Arroyo administration in exchange for fabricated statements against Sen. Panfilo Lacson in connection with the Dacer-Corbito double murder case.
Mancao made the claim during the same hearing where Judge Myra Garcia Fernandez affirmed a Supreme Court decision dated Oct. 5, 2005, ordering the dropping of former Supt. Glenn Dumlao—also an ex-member of the now-defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF)—from the list of accused in the case in order to become a witness.
As has been the practice in Judge Fernandez’s court, journalists were barred from covering the hearing on her orders.
Mancao made the statement in response to a question posed by the defense panel during cross-examination at the hearing of the case involving the 2000 abduction and murder of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.
Offer rejected
“He admitted in court that sometime in September 2007, while he was still in the United States, he received a call from a man who identified himself as General Prestoza, who was then the Presidential Security Group commander,” said Mancao’s lawyer Ferdinand Topacio.
“He said the caller offered him and his family financial support, relocation in Singapore and education support for his children in exchange for false statements against Senator Lacson,” Topacio said.
“But he refused those offers,” Topacio quickly said, adding that the offer had nothing to do with Mancao’s February 2009 affidavit where he named ranking government officials, including Lacson, as among those behind Operation Delta, the purported plan to neutralize Dacer.
‘No exchange’
Mancao was also asked during cross-examination whether he entered into a deal with the government in connection with the affidavit.
“He said there was none—well, maybe except for the food and the protection he now gets, being under the Department of Justice’s Witness Protection Program. Other than that, wala na (nothing). He stood firm on his claim that he executed his affidavit on his own initiative, voluntarily, with no exchange,” Topacio said.
Mancao also reiterated in court that he had heard Lacson ordering former Senior Supt. Michael Ray Aquino to implement Oplan Bero and Oplan Delta at the same time.
General’s reaction
“‘Pagsabayin mo na’ (Do it at the same time) was what Lacson told Aquino while they were inside a vehicle on the way to a restaurant in San Juan, according to Colonel Mancao,” Topacio added.
Reached by phone Thursday night, Maj. Gen. Romeo Prestoza said he would like to first “see and hear” Mancao’s testimony before issuing a comment.
“I have no idea what he is talking about, so I would like to see a copy of his testimony before saying anything,” Prestoza said.
In March, Lacson claimed that Mancao told him as far back as January 2008 that he would recant whatever statements he would make against the senator.
Lacson also quoted Mancao as saying that Prestoza had offered to reinstate him into the police force or resettle his family in Singapore in exchange for implicating Lacson in the Dacer-Corbito murders.
The senator claimed that Mancao had said he would not give in.
‘Ordinary witness’
In the middle of the hearing that lasted for almost three hours, Dumlao was escorted out of the courtroom by heavily armed members of the National Bureau of Investigation.
According to his lawyers Cesar Brillantes, Rogelio Agoot and Morel Callueng, Dumlao was ordered released in recognition of a Supreme Court decision dropping him from the list of the accused.
“He will now become an ordinary witness,” Callueng said of Dumlao.
Added Agoot: “He has committed himself to testify against people he believes were behind the killing of Dacer and Corbito.”
Judge Fernandez ruled that Dumlao was “expressly excluded from the amended information dated Sept. 17, 2001, which has been declared valid by the Supreme Court.”
“Consequently, the amended information dated May 15, 2006, is ordered withdrawn,” she said.
In upholding the dropping of Dumlao from the list of the accused, the Supreme Court said that while court rules did not allow law enforcement officials from becoming state witnesses, these did not prevent prosecutors from excluding him from the charge sheet.
“Admission to the WPP (Witness Protection Program) and being discharged as an accused are two different things. Dumlao’s being a law enforcement officer and, thus, disqualified to be under the WPP, does not in any way prohibit him to be discharged from the information,” the tribunal ruled.
Asked to describe his feelings, Dumlao said he was “very happy” and “relieved.”
Mancao also expressed happiness for his former colleague, as well as relief that the latter would be able to “corroborate” his testimony.
The burden he’s carrying
Lacson said he watched and was touched by the TV interview on Wednesday of Dumlao, his former police aide who claimed that deposed President Joseph Estrada was behind the Dacer-Corbito murders.
“If that’s a preview of what he intends to say in his affidavit or his testimony, then I welcome it, personally,” the senator told reporters.
Lacson said he “felt bad” for Estrada and “all those who may be indicted or affected by the revelation of Superintendent Dumlao.”
“My heart also goes out to [him] because I could see the burden he was carrying. He was crying when he was being interviewed, and it’s very obvious he wanted to unload whatever he was carrying inside,” Lacson said.
Scripted, says Erap
The senator scoffed at Estrada’s claim that the Dumlao interview with ABS-CBN was part of a script.
He said he had not even spoken to Dumlao, who was extradited from the United States a few months ago, and that he met with Dumlao and his other former police aides only once in 2004 in the United States.
The senator also said Estrada might have made the comment because the latter’s “mind-set” was always on the movies.
“Dumlao is not even an actor; how can he follow the script?” Lacson said.
Asked if he agreed with Dumlao’s claim that it was Estrada who was behind Operation Delta, Mancao said: We share the same sentiments… I’m just telling the truth.”
Gov’t’s special project
Alex Avisado, lawyer of the other accused and legal spokesperson of Lacson, said the defense was happy with the way things were going.
“We’re happy that the prosecution witnesses, little by little, are confirming what we have been saying all along—that this case is a special project of the government,” Avisado said. With reports from Christine O. Avendaño, Jocelyn R. Uy and Inquirer Research
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