MANILA, Philippines -- Former police colonel Cezar Mancao II requested that a bulletproof vest be put on him when he returns to the country later this week for the reinvestigation of the 2000 Dacer-Corbito murders.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said on Tuesday Mancao’s lawyer, Arnedo Valera, relayed his client’s request for the security precaution.
“I received a call from (Mancao’s lawyer) asking that he be given a bulletproof vest,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez added that Valera and Mancao’s wife, Maricar, would just follow Mancao to the Philippines instead of coming along on the same flight from the United States as initially planned.
Gonzalez said Mancao’s flight for the Philippines has been booked and scheduled to arrive on Thursday.
The justice secretary said Mancao would be in the custody of the NBI upon his arrival in the country.
Gonzalez has repeatedly said that the Department of Justice (DoJ)has yet to receive any specific threat to Mancao, the government would not take his security for granted.
Gonzalez said the DoJ could give the other Dacer-Corbito accused, Glenn Dumlao, two weeks to arrive in the country before starting a new preliminary investigation that would take in Mancao and Dumlao’s new testimonies.
The justice secretary said that Dumlao’s return would hinge on how satisfactory his deposition would be in connection with the extradition hearing of another co-accused in the case, Michael Ray Aquino, in a New Jersey court.
He said the deposition would be the only legal hurdle to Dumlao’s extradition as Dumlao already dropped his habeas corpus case against the US authorities.
Gonzalez said he preferred that Mancao and Dumlao be in the country before the preliminary investigation. He said he would not want to have separate proceedings for Mancao and Dumlao’s testimonies.
Mancao is a former aide of Senator Panfilo Lacson, who was chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) when publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito were murdered.
Dumlao was a former subordinate of Mancao.
Lacson had denied involvement in the Dacer-Corbito case.
