Mancao lawyer admits meeting with Estrada

The legal counsel of former police officer Cezar Mancao II on Wednesday admitted he went to the house of former President Joseph Estrada over the weekend, but clarified there was nothing irregular about the visit. "Opo (Yes)," lawyer Ferdinand Topacio said in an interview on dzBB radio, confirming Senator Panfilo Lacson’s allegations that the laywer went to Estrada’s house in San Juan City last Sunday, September 20. But Topacio quickly fended off insinuations that Estrada sought to have his name cleared in the ongoing investigations on the November 2000 killings of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito. "Di naman krimen na maimbitahan ni Pangulong Estrada. Di naman siya akusado. Wala pong nagbabago...Bukas ay mayroong testimonya si Mancao. Makikita kung magbabago, kung nag-deviate sa Feb. 13, 2009 affidavit niya," Topacio said.

(It’s not a crime to be invited by President Estrada, who is not even an accused. Nothing has changed. Mancao will testify in court tomorrow and let’s see if he will deviate from his Feb. 13, 2009 affidavit.) Topacio was referring to Mancao’s controversial affidavit that linked Lacson and Estrada to the twin killings. Both Estrada and Lacson have denied involvement in the incident. In his privilege speech on Tuesday, Lacson said that Topacio went to Estrada’s house to "report" to the former president. He said this shocked Estrada’s lawyers who were there at the time. 'Apology accepted' In the same radio interview, anchor Arnold Clavio asked Topacio for his motives for going to Estrada’s house. To which, the lawyer said he apologized to the former president for earlier reports quoting him (Topacio) as saying that Mancao identified Estrada as the brains behind the crime. "Pinag-usapan po namin (ang Dacer-Corbito case) to the extent na sinabi ko na wala akong sinasabi na ganoon (that Estrada masterminded the crime)," Topacio said. (We talked about the Dacer-Corbito case to the extent that I told him that I never said that he masterminded the crime.) Topacio then said Estrada was "gracious enough to accept" his apology. He even quoted Estrada as telling him that “Ah, ganun ba? Eh di sige (Is that so? Okay)." Last September 15, Topacio issued a media statement clarifying that Mancao’s testimony only implicated Lacson as the mastermind in the Dacer-Corbito killings. "In my honest opinion as a lawyer, and based on the evidence so far adduced in court by my client Cezar O. Mancao II, the only direct evidence with respect to the mastermind in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case pertains to Sen. Panfilo Lacson," Topacio said. "The evidence regarding the participation of former President Joseph Estrada in the said crime is at best sketchy thus far, and in my humble opinion, will not pass muster either in a court of law or before any preliminary investigation in the Department of Justice," he added. Mancao testimony However, Mancao’s testimony before the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 18 on Sept. 3, 2009 named Estrada as among those involved in the Dacer and Corbito’s abduction and killing on Nov. 24, 2003. The same testimony was cited by the Dacer family in their motion to include Estrada as a suspect in the Department of Justice’s preliminary investigation on the crime. [Click the links on the left to view portions of the Dacer family's motion citing Mancao's testimony.] "Who exactly were those personalities who were involved in that operation (to kill Dacer) or have knowledge about the operation?" state prosecutor Hazel Valdez asked Mancao during the September 3 hearing. Mancao replied: "I can say some people who are involved or have knowledge about the operation were then President Erap, Joseph Estrada because (former Senior Superintendent) Michael Ray Aquino told me in his office…" - GMANews.TV