The return of Cezar Mancao to the Philippines brought back the controversial murder of PR man Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito. Mancao has accused Senator Panfilo Lacson and former President Joseph Estrada to be the involved in the said murder case. And because of these, Lacson in his speech at the Senate dragged Estrada’s name to jueteng, rice smuggling, and other misdeeds during his short stint as president.
Lacson also mentioned that the former president may have a hand in the 2000 murders of Dacer and Corbito. He said that Estrada once issued orders directly to his police officers since Lacson was the chief of the Philippine National Police during the Estrada administration.
“(I) have personal knowledge on this, during his presidency, he was giving direct orders and instructions deep into the layers of the entire government bureaucracy, the PNP, and Presidential Anti Organized Crime Task Force,” Lacson told fellow senators.
He also denied any knowledge in the Oplan Delta to kill Dacer, which according to Estrada that Lacson has supervised Mancao’s recent testimony. “Instead of just defending himself, why is he pointing a finger at someone else?” he asked.
He also washed his hands on the jueteng issue when he said that his relationship with the deposed president turned sour when Estrada asked him to allow jueteng to continue under his leadership in the PNP.
A few minutes before his privilege speech, Lacson disclosed to some media men that the Estrada camp was trying to work on him until Sunday night. He said that three men, all common friends of his and Estrada, had asked him to postpone the speech. But according to him, postponing the speech would be next to impossible since everything was already set in the Senate.
The Senate session hall was packed with people, including whistleblowers Sandra Cam, Vidal Doble, and Boy Barredo.
Cam was the one who blew the whistle on jueteng (a numbers game) against the family members of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo; Doble, the 2005 Hello Garci scandal; and Barredo, the P728-million fertilizer fund scam.
