Bubby Dacer

The Dacer–Corbito double murder case is one of the unsolved murders that occurred in the Philippines during the administration of Joseph Estrada. Since 2001, a number of arrests were made.

Background The ultimate reasons for Dacer's murder remain a subject of debate. Former President Fidel V. Ramos has publicly accused his successor, President Joseph Estrada, of giving the original order — Estrada was mired in a corruption scandal at the time, and according to some reports, Estrada believed Dacer was helping Ramos destabilize his rule.

Victims

Salvador "Bubby" Dacer (April 12, 1934 – November 24, 2000) He is the uncle of broadcast journalist Kaye Dacer.

Emmanuel Corbito (May 9, 1952 – November 24, 2000), meanwhile, was Dacer's driver. Later in the night, they were reportedly killed by strangulation and their bodies were burned. Three days later, Dacer's car was found abandoned in Maragondon, Cavite. Their charred remains, found in 2001 in Indang, in the same province, were positively identified.

Testimonies Members of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) were the suspects as claimed by Jimmy Lopez, a PAOCTF civilian agent and former barangay captain, and Alex Diloy, in a press conference on March 29, 2001.

The two admitted their participation in the crime and identified twelve other co-conspirators including four PAOCTF members, particularly, SPO4 Marino Soberano (according to the NBI, was present in the raid near Dacer's house and the crime) and SPO3 Mauro Torres.

Later developments on the case A testimony of a former ranking official of the PAOCTF led to the capture of seven agents allegedly linked to the case. Three former police generals were also included through a petition granted by the CA.

In 2006, the Manila RTC, finding probable cause to prosecute Mancao, Aquino and 18 others for the murders, ordered the arrest of the two.

Mancao later agreed to turn state witness, but in 2011, the CA declared him unfit to serve as such, citing mistakes in his affidavits. He was subsequently removed from the Witness Protection Program. He was acquitted later that year. Dumlao turned state witness in 2009 and was dropped from the list of the accused; the case against Aquino was dismissed by the Manila RTC in 2012. and, nine days later, former SPO1 Rolando Lacasandile in Quezon City.

Conviction In September 2017, Manila RTC Branch 18, while acquitting Mancao and Soberano for lack of evidence, convicted former SPO3 Mauro Torres, sentencing him to life imprisonment without eligibility of a parole. Torres had admitted being the one who strangled the victims.

United States court ruling In January 2014, a district court in North Carolina, United States ordered former P/Supt. Aquino to pay Dacer's daughters $4.2 million in damages. The daughters used the Torture Victim Protection Act, allowing US courts to hear human rights abuse cases committed outside the said country.

Aftermath The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, a special police unit, was created by President Estrada through Executive Order No. 8 in the beginning of his term, taking over from the defunct Presidential Anti-Crime Commission which Estrada had headed while being the Vice President. Due to the implication of its members in the case, as well as in other crimes, his successor Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered to abolish the task force in 2001. Since then, no actions had been taken against its members.

By 2009, at least three of the respondents in the case are already dead. Viña was shot to death in Tanza, Cavite in 2003.

Mancao was appointed as chief of the Department of Information and Communications Technology–Cybercrime Investigation and Coordination Center in 2020.

Dumlao was reinstated to the PNP in 2012 and became the police's anti-kidnapping chief four years later.

Aquino, by 2022, is working with businessman Ricky Razon.

In popular culture The case was featured on the tenth episode of television program Case Unclosed, aired on GMA Network in 2008.