Mancao claims being pressured to recant testimony vs Lacson

(Updated 12:35 p.m.) Former police officer Cezar Mancao II on Tuesday claimed emissaries from the camp of Sen. Panfilo Lacson have been pressuring him to withdraw his testimony against the fugitive senator, the key suspect in the 2000 killing of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito. Mancao did not identify the emissaries but hinted that they are his common friends with Lacson, his former boss when the double murder was committed in November 2000. "Mayroong mga emissaries, alam mo na, marami kaming common friends. I'd still like to say that I will stand [by] whatever I said in the court. Be assured na lalaban tayo (There are emissaries, you know, we have a lot of common friends. I'd still like to say that I will stand by whatever I said in court. Be assured that we will fight)," Mancao told reporters. He made the statement after he and his laywer, Ferdinand Topacio, met with Justice Sec. Leila de Lima to discuss the alleged harassment by the National Bureau of Investigation last week. De Lima, for her part, said the matter should be looked into. "Apparently there are sectors trying to jeopardize the main criminal cases," she said at a news briefing on Tuesday. GMANews.TV tried to reach Lacson's lawyer, Alex Avisado, for comment but he could not be contacted as of posting time. Mancao's affidavit vs Lacson In his February 2009 affidavit, Mancao implicated Lacson as the brains behind Dacer and Corbito's deaths. He stood by his testimony in the earlier hearings of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 18, which handles the Dacer-Corbito double murder case. (See: Mancao affidavit points to Lacson as slay mastermind) On Tuesday, Topacio confirmed that Lacson's camp had been giving offers and had been threatening Mancao to recant his testimony and implicate other personalities as masterminds. "There are pressures and offers for him to retract and to point to other parties as the mastermind," Topacio said, adding that the bribe offers reached "seven to eight figures." He added that the NBI's supposed harassment of Mancao last Friday — an allegation the NBI has already denied — was part of the alleged pattern to pressure Mancao to withdraw his testimony against Lacson.
The NBI is now headed by Magtanggol Gatdula, Lacson's former subordinate when he still headed the Philippine National Police and the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF). Mancao is under the NBI's protective custody because he is still listed as an accused in the Dacer-Corbito killings. However, he is also under the Witness Protection Program because the DOJ's Task Force 211 — which investigates extrajudicial killings — considers Mancao a state witness. The NBI supposedly tried to detain Mancao because he violated security terms prescribed under the DOJ's Witness Protection Program and because the NBI wanted to give him more security. Mancao to remain under WPP After the meeting with De Lima, Topacio said "all the kinks have been ironed out" and that Mancao will remain under the WPP. Topacio, however, declined to comment about the NBI's reported plan to pull out from giving Mancao security and leave the entire matter to the WPP. Earlier in the day, Gatdula said the NBI's move was to quell doubts that it is being a pawn of Lacson. "Nagkakaroon ng iringan ... May distrust na namamagitan so we're requesting the Secretary of Justice to relieve the NBI from any security and let other law enforcement agency give the same to him (There is now distrust so we're requesting the Secretary of Justice to relieve the NBI from any security and let other law enforcement agencies give the same to him)," Gatdula said in an interview on dzRH radio. A Philippine Daily Inquirer report on Tuesday also said Gatdula already wrote to De Lima about the matter. "He (Mancao) has, time and again, claimed distrust in the NBI and has expressed a fear for his life under NBI custody. Against this factual backdrop, we respectfully request transfer of Mancao’s physical custody to the WPP-DoJ," Gatdula told the Justice secretary in his letter. De Lima, for her part, said the DOJ would ask the Manila RTC Branch 18 to decide on the NBI's move to withdraw protection from Mancao. "There is a need for us to file the proper motion in court for the transfer of protective custody. We're looking at a unit of the PNP which can take the place of the NBI," De Lima said. "In the meantime, pending the filing, the DOJ-WPP would be making certain interim arrangements to ensure the security of Mancao," she added. — RSJ, GMANews.TV