Suspect in Dacer-Corbito case to return to RP next week

MANILA, Philippines – Former police Senior Superintendent Glenn Dumlao would be extradited to the Philippines from the United States next week, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said Wednesday. Gonzalez refused, however, to disclose the exact date of the arrival for security reasons. Dumlao was one of the suspects in the disappearance of publicist Salvador “Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in 2000. Gonzalez said that Dumlao would be arrested on arrival and placed under the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). “When we received the [advisory] that he [Dumalo] can be released to us, then we will send the NBI. I don’t want the date announced for that," the DOJ chief said, adding that a US court ordered that Dumlao should be extradited not later than March 19, 2009. Gonzalez also said that he did not know whether Dumlao should be considered a state witness in the Dacer-Corbito case since the affidavit of former Senior Superintendent Cezar Mancao II had “more beef" than Dumlao’s. “There is more beef in the statement of Mancao, because Mancao’s statement has implicated specific persons which are of his own personal knowledge. If Dumlao will admit, for example, that he was the one who monitored Dacer for several weeks at the Manila Hotel, why did he do that and who told him, ordered him [ he might qualify as a witness]," Gonzalez said. A GMA "Flash Report," meanwhile, quoted the Dacer family as saying that they were hoping Dumlao would support what Mancao had indicated in his sworn affidavit, which was reportedly being hidden in an undisclosed bank vault. Core group Dumlao and Mancao, along with former Senior Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino, are considered the “core group" that has knowledge in the Dacer-Corbito case. The three are detained in the US. Dumlao and Mancao were arrested in connection with an extradition case filed against them, while Aquino was imprisoned on an espionage charge. It was earlier reported that Mancao might return to the Philippines next week. Gonzalez also said the DOJ would keep secret the exact date of Mancao's arrival. Gonzalez said he believes Aquino is the missing piece in the puzzle. "The most important person here is Michael Ray Aquino, because he is in direct contact with somebody who wants to do away with Dacer," he said without elaborating. The DOJ chief, however, said it would be futile to try and get Aquino home to face investigation as he is in a US prison. Aquino currently is serving his four-year sentence in the US in connection with the espionage case lodged against him and former Federal Bureau of Investigation analyst Leandro Aragoncillo in 2005. Dumlao’s affidavit In his own affidavit that he signed on June 12, 2001 before Quezon City Assistant Prosecutor Nilo Peñaflor, Dumlao admitted his participation in the crime and named his alleged conspirators, which included his superiors Mancao and Aquino, as well as Dumlao’s subordinates who carried out the kidnapping of Dacer and Corbito. Dumlao, Mancao, and Aquino belonged to the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) and were all known trusted officers of then Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and now Sen. Panfilo Lacson. According to court records, Aquino, who was chief of the PAOCTF Operations Division, staged-managed the murder with the help of Dumlao and Mancao. Dumlao was deputy chief of operations of the PAOCTF while Mancao was the task force’s chief for Luzon. Dacer and Corbito were kidnapped by armed men, who turned out to be subordinates of the three former police officials, on Nov. 24, 2000, between 11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. at the intersection of Zobel Roxas Street and Osmeňa Highway in Manila. Later that night, the two victims were allegedly strangled to death and their bodies burned to ashes. All that remained of them were fragments of their teeth that were recovered in Barangay Buna Lejos in Indang town in Cavite, south of Manila. In September 2007, an amended information discharging Dumlao and three others for the crime since they had turned state witnesses was denied by the court, with the Supreme Court ultimately ordering the reinclusion of Dumlao as an accused, along with his two superiors. - with Carlo Lorenzo, GMANews.TV