Mancao a no-show at Dacer-Corbito hearing

Former police Senior Superintendent Cezar Mancao II was a no-show at the pre-trial hearing on the 2000 killing of publicist Salvador “Bubby" Dacer and Emmanuel Corbito. Ferdinand Topacio, Mancao’s lawyer, said his client was not feeling well. "To avoid all speculations, he (Mancao) is ill at the moment. He has contracted amoebiasis," Topacio told reporters in an interview after the hearing at the Manila Regional Trial Court. Topacio said Mancao is not backing out from his statements. The former member of the now defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Task Force (PAOCTF) was supposed to finish his testimony during the hearing. In his February 13, 2009 affidavit, Mancao linked Senator Panfilo Lacson, his former superior at the PAOCTF, and former President Joseph Estrada as the brains behind the Dacer-Corbito twin killings. The two had repeatedly denied involvement in the crime. Topacio said Mancao would complete his testimony on August 26, the next hearing scheduled by Manila RTC Branch 18 Judge Myra Garcia Fernandez. Last July 22, Mancao's testimony was cut short because of a motion made by the lawyers of the others accused in the case. Also on Thursday’s hearing, the court discussed the motion of Glenn Dumlao, another former police officer linked to the Dacer-Corbito case. He was seeking his removal from the charge sheet. In his motion, Dumlao questioned his inclusion in the charge sheet, noting that the Supreme Court had already discharged him in its October 2005 ruling. "On June 7, 2006, the prosecution...filed a Compliance with attached Amended Information re-including (Dumlao) as among the accused," the motion read. It added that the Amended Information was not in accordance with the high court's ruling that excluded Dumlao from the list of the accused. Dumlao's arraignment was initially scheduled last July 30, but was deferred to August 26 after the former policeman camp's learned that he was still considered an accused. - GMANews.TV