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April 4, 2001, The Philippine Star, Six Dacer slay suspects abducted, by Mike Frialde,

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Dacer murder

 

April 4, 2001, The Philippine Star, Six Dacer slay suspects abducted, by Mike Frialde,

All but two of the civilian suspects in the brutal kidnap-murder of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito have disappeared and are now feared dead, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said yesterday.

According to NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco, they received information that six of the primary civilian suspects in the case were snatched from their homes by armed men on Sunday.

Those reportedly abducted were Digo de PedroRenato and Jovencio MalabananWilliam LopezMargarito Cueno and Rommel Rollanall residents of Indang, Cavite.

Wycoco said they were informed of the suspects' disappearance on Monday when De Pedro's wife went to NBI headquarters asking for her husband.

According to De Pedro's wife, armed men went to their house in Barangay Buna Lejos 2 in Indang and supposedly "arrested" him on Sunday.

On the same day, the wives of the Malabanan brothers also went to the NBI and asked that their husbands be taken into custody for fear of their lives.

However, when NBI agents went to the house of the Malabanan brothers, also in Buna Lejos 2 in Indang, to fetch them yesterday morning, the suspects were no longer there. Their wives also said armed men came and "arrested" them.

NBI National Capital Region director Samuel Ong said the six civilian suspects could have been snatched to "silence" them.

"All civilians accused can no longer be located in their residences. We really fear that one by one, they will be liquidated. The masterminds, whoever they are, belong to a very powerful group," Ong said.

But Ong was quick to add that even if the six civilian suspects were liquidated, statements of confessed co-conspirators Jimmy Lopez and Alex Diloy, are enough to seal the case.

"(Even) if they silence all of them, we still have two (suspects). The statements of our two witnesses are already strong," Ong said, adding that the masterminds are probably panicking that other details would surface.

Ong said the NBI is now at the most crucial stage of the case, tracing of the masterminds.

According to Ong, the NBI has already subpoenaed Senior Superintendent Teofilo Viña, former Visayas head of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), to appear at the NBI at 10 a.m. on .

Lopez and Diloy tagged Viña as the team leader of the PAOCTF agents who were implicated in the double-murder and also issued the caliber .45 pistol that was recovered from Lopez.

"We want to know why he issued that mission order to Lopez. We would also want to know how come he was implicated in the case," Ong said.

But Viña remains at large and, after snubbing an earlier NBI invitation, probers no longer expect him to appear before probers to shed light on the case.

As PAOCTF Visayas chief, Viña reports to retired national police and PAOCTF chief Director General Panfilo Lacson, who is now running for the Senate.

Lacson, for his part, lambasted as "irresponsible" the remarks of former President Fidel Ramosa close friend of Dacer, who on Monday raised vital questions on the double murder case.

Ramos had questioned why the administration of former President Joseph Estrada was "lukewarm" on Dacer's disappearance and "dilly-dallied" on the high profile case.

Ramos also questioned why Lacson was able to leave the country without the knowledge of Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora who was supposed to approve all foreign trips of civil servants.

But Lacson, in a statement, dismissed Ramos'questions as "highly malicious" and said insinuations that "he is involved in the abduction of Dacer are not only baseless but also "bereft of logic."

"It is obvious that Mr. Ramos is missing the limelight when he was still the president. Thus, he doesn't care whether his statements are true or not as long as they land in the headlines," Lacson said.

Lacson also urged the NBI to remain objective in its probe on the Dacer case, saying that some of its officials have already infused political color into the case.

 

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