Dacers include Joseph Estrada in murder complaint

THE criminal complaint against former President Joseph Estrada in the killing of publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver is on its way to Manila and expected to be filed with the Justice Department within the week, the complainants’ lawyer said yesterday.

Dacer’s daughters Carina, Sabina Dacer-Reyes, Emily Dacer-Hungerford, and Amparo Dacer-Henson last week signed the complaint before the consul general in New York and California where they now lived, Demetrio Custodio said.

“All four signed the complaint. It should be on its way back here already,” Custodio said.

Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, were snatched on the South Superhighway in November 2000 and taken to Indang, Cavite, where they were killed and their bodies burned.

Dacer was said to be on his way to reveal Estrada’s supposed role in an insider trading scandal when he was abducted.

Estrada was driven from power by a military- backed people power revolt in 2001. He was convicted of plunder in 2007, but was pardoned six weeks later by Gloria Arroyo, his vice president who succeeded him to the presidency.

Custodio said Carina had told him that he would receive the signed complaint today, and that he would file it immediately once he got it.

“Why would [the timing] be questionable?” he said when asked to comment on the Estrada camp’s charge that the complaint was being filed in the same week that Estrada was filing his candidacy for president in next year’s elections.

“His declaration is what is questionable,” Custodio said.

“Mr. Estrada and the public knew all along that we will be filing a complaint against him. What is taking us time to file it is because the complainants are living in the United States, and they have to subscribe and swear to the documents before the consul general.”

Custodio declined to discuss the details of the complaint, but said it was based on the testimony of former police Senior Supt. Cezar Mancao II before a Manila court linking Estrada to the killing.

“There was clear indication in Mancao’s testimony in court of President Estrada’s involvement in the case,” he said.

The complaint against Estrada was different from the case filed by the Dacer siblings against Senator Panfilo Lacson, who had also implicated Estrada to the killings, Custodio said. That case has been submitted to the Justice Department for resolution.

Mancao had testified that Lacson sought Dacer’s liquidation after Dacer threatened to expose Estrada’s alleged role in an insider trading scandal. He accused Lacson, Estrada’s chief of police, of ordering Dacer’s killing and that Lacson was “directly getting orders from Malacañang.” Rey E. Requejo


Source: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideNews.htm?f=2009/october/19/news1.isx&d=/2009/october/19