Face murder charges, Mancao tells Lacson

Former police officer Cezar Mancao II on Thursday asked his former superior, Senator Panfilo Lacson, to face his double murder charges in connection with the November 2000 killing of publicist Salvador “Bubby" Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito. "As a fellow former police officer, I am appealing to my former superior to submit himself to the judicial process in proving his innocence, instead of fleeing the jurisdiction of the Philippine courts," Mancao said in a statement. "In order for the justice system to continue functioning, it is not enough that the innocent be freed, but that the guilty – no matter how rich and powerful – should not evade punishment," he added. The killing of Dacer and Corbito was allegedly carried out by members of the defunct Police Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), which then Philippine National Police chief Lacson headed. Mancao was one of the key officials of the police unit. In an affidavit he executed in February 2009, Mancao implicated Lacson as the brains behind the killings [See: Mancao affidavit points to Lacson as slay mastermind]. Lacson has repeatedly denied having any hand in Dacer and Corbito’s deaths. Ironically, Mancao also fled to the United States at the height of the investigation in May 2001. He said in his affidavit that it was Lacson who ordered him to escape the country because the newly-installed Arroyo administration would go after those behind the Dacer-Corbito killings. "In that meeting, Lacson instructed both of us (I and former police Senior Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino) to leave the country since the new admnistration would surely go after us and link us in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case, among others, in order to destroy his reputation and presidential ambition," Mancao said. Mancao’s affidavit became the basis of the complaint that Dacer's daughters filed before the Department of Justice, which found probable cause to indict Lacson for the twin killings. But two days before the DOJ filed the double murder charges at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court last Jan. 7, 2010, Lacson had already fled the country, according to the Bureau of Immigration. In an exclusive report by GMA News' John Consulta, Justice Sec. Agnes Devanadera also showed a footage of Lacson at the airport hours before he left for Hong Kong.

For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV Lacson admitted last Tuesday that he left the Philippines to elude the persecution and political vendetta of the Arroyo administration, which he had strongly criticized. Administration officials denied Lacson's allegations. - RSJ, GMANews.TV