Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — One of the alleged masterminds of the murder of publicist Bubby Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in 2000 surrendered to police this week after being on the run for nearly four years.
Senior Supt. Belli Tamayo — chief of the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, National Capital Region — said Wednesday Senior Supt. Cesar Mancao surrendered on Monday and is now in their custody pending the issuance of the commitment order.
Mancao escaped from the National Bureau of Investigation’s custody in 2013 as he was about to be transferred to the Manila City Jail.
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He told then Justice Secretary Leila De Lima that he fled because he feared for his life in the new facility.
Mancao was a member of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force during the Estrada administration.
Dacer was the publicist of former President Joseph Estrada and was allegedly working with former President Fidel Ramos to destabilize the Estrada administration.
Mancao and others involved in the case, such as now Anti-Kidnapping Group Senior Supt. Glenn Dumlao and Senior Supt. Michael Ray Aquino, fled to the United States following the double murder in 2000.
They were eventually extradited to face the charges. Dumlao was reinstated, while Aquino was ordered released by a Manila court.
Then Philippine National Police chief Panfilo Lacson, who was among the accused, was cleared by the Court of Appeals in 2011. The Supreme Court upheld the decision.
