Pero in Ping Lacson's defense, I will post here a few exculpatory items that was pretty much ignored by the then pro-Arroyo, pro-edsa dos mainstream media, but point to others as the suspects in the dacer-corbito murder case.
Here's article one:
DACERS ASKED TO COMMENT ON PRIEST'S EXPOSE
Manila, April 9, 2001 - The family of public relations man Salvador "Bubby" Dacer was asked yesterday to comment on the statements of a Parañaque priest over the possible knowledge of former President Ramos and his national security adviser Jose Almonte in Dacer's disappearance.
The opposition Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino said yesterday: "We appeal to the Dacer family to come out and confirm or deny Fr. (Gabriel) Baldostamon's statement. We understand the pain they must feel at the continued disappearance of their father, but they must come out in order to help shed light on this matter. Don't be afraid of Ramos and Almonte."
Fr. Baldostamon is the parish priest of the Our Lady of the Holy Rosary church in Sun Valley Subd. where the Dacer family lives.
He claimed to have heard Almonte "consoling" the Dacer family that should they recover or "arrange" for Dacer's release, they would spirit him out to the United States and make it appear that he was still missing.
Baldostamon said Almonte made the statement in a breakfast meeting with the Dacer family about 10 days after his disappearance.
"Did Almonte really say that?" the LDP asked. "If he did, he must explain his intentions for doing so and why did he sound as if he had contact with Dacer's abductors?"
The LDP said it is a "surprise" that Almonte has not even reacted to Baldostamon's claims.
Almonte earlier came out with a letter in which Dacer wrote apprehensions over drawing the ire of Joseph Estrada and former PNP chief Panfilo Lacson.
The LDP said the parish priest had no reason to lie when he bared his story, which was first brought public by Bishop Teodoro Bacani in his Today newspaper column last Thursday. The following day, Baldostamon confirmed the contents of Bacani's column.
It was also Bacani who first questioned Almonte's motive for coming up such statements before the Dacer family. Bacani also asked probers looking into the Dacer case to dig deeper into Baldostamon's statements.
Article two from Herman Tiu Laurel:
Investigate Almonte
by Herman Tiu Laurel
Two weeks ago, news of the explosive revelation from the Dacer parish priest hit the newspapers. Fr. Baldestamon of the Sun Valley parish church came forward to make public overtures he heard from Ramos henchman Joe Almonte to the Dacer children a short time after their father disappeared—that he could negotiate for his release provided Dacer is immediately shipped to the US and the family continues to mourn like he had never been found. Why has NBI chief Reynaldo Wycoco not called in Almonte to find out more about this crucial angle?
We are now being bombarded on a daily basis by headlines on “killers” of Dacer having surfaced and confessed.
However, when read, the full story identifies them only as “suspects.” Before this, an Inquirer headline tagged Estrada as the culprit behind Dacer’s disappearance and presumed murder. Department of Justice Secretary Nani Perez had to clarify later that there was no factual basis at all for the headline. The “uncivil Society” media has really been going amuck. I suspect it is to deflect attention from the Fr. Baldestamon bombshell involving Almonte—and Ramos.
Fr. Baldestamon’s revelation was brought to the surface in one of the newspaper columns of Bishop Ted Bacani. Last week, I read a letter-to-the-editor from Ramos to Bacani, outlining his response to the Bacani column. It was a very lame letter recalling his expressions of concern for Dacer’s disappearance, citing such inane publications as Customsweek. Readers will recall that it was precisely Ramos’ dubiously premature and hammed up concern, when Dacer’s disappearance was not even an established fact yet, that triggered suspicions about a Ramos hand in the abduction.
The story is now told to close friends by the Dacer children, Ampy and Sabina, that the Ramos visit to Dacer’s office on that fateful day of the disappearance was very uncharacteristic. In the many years of Dacer and Ramos’ professional dealings, never once did Ramos visit Dacer’s office. But on the day of Dacer’s kidnapping Ramos did, and after only an hour of waiting he started making it too obvious he was concerned—by calling media about his alarm over Dacer’s disappearance.
It could have just been traffic, a flat tire or engine trouble, a sudden family emergency, a bum stomach, an extended breakfast meeting, or a hundred other small possibilities that delayed Dacer for an hour. With cell phone service the way it is today, and service providers undermining each other by delaying interconnections or with cell sites jammed or down, an hour’s wait to get a cell phone connection happens quite frequently. So, delayed cell phone contact is not sufficient reason to panic and call media.
The scenario is too much like a no-smoking room with a tell-tale tobacco stick.
The government has produced one suspect after another. Each time they bring up these suspects, more questions come up. The original duo, who were alleged to have disposed of the bodies, were themselves blocked from seeing their lawyer, Atty. Ric Valmonte. The subsequent “confessed” participants in the Dacer case have, according to newspaper reports, reportedly been arrested without warrant and “subjected to physical torture.” All these alleged violations of the suspects’ rights, which will have serious bearing on the credibility of the investigations, must be looked into.
The NBI, which is assigned to the Dacer case, must preserve and protect its integrity and credibility at all times. Unfortunately, former general Wycoco is not delivering on this fundamental duty he has to the organization. He is leaving too many stones, nay, boulders, unturned on the trail of the Dacer case—lying so in plain sight of everyone who cares to see. But he is apparently deliberately turning his eyes to where there are no rocks and boulders, content to follow the trail where red herrings are being tossed farther and farther away.
Now that the Almonte angle has been raised by Fr. Baldestamon, Gen. Wycoco is obliged to invite both to be interviewed. The story must be officially verified, and Almonte’s side should be looked closely into. The Dacer children must also be asked, to crosscheck the parish priest’s story. But foremost among these actions is this—send a summon to Almonte. This Rasputin of Ramos has some explaining to do. If he gets himself off cleanly, we won’t raise the issue again. While he avoids the Almonte matter, nothing he does will be credible.
And from Ninez Cacho Olivares:
NINEZ CACHO-OLIVARES
Too strange,too rushed
Apr 16, 2001
The case of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer is a strange one indeed.
First, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) announces to the public that the case has been solved, as its officials presented before the media, two eyewitnesses and a bag of charred bones plus dentures that they claimed were Dacer's and his driver Emmanuel Corbito's but which still had to undergo DNA testing for positive verification.
Then one witness showed the media a pair of brown loafers which he claimed belonged to Dacer and which the killers gave him for his own use. He even went to the extent of claiming that the pair of shoes used to be white, but that they were brown today because he had dyed the pair brown.
Based on the eyewitness account, certain cops identified with former Philippine National Police chief Panfilo Lacson, were implicated in the "murder" of Dacer and Corbito.
It was later discovered that the pair of shoes shown by the witness could not have belonged to Dacer or Corbito. And forensics still had not determined whether the charred bones were human bones.
It was much too evident that the so-called eyewitnesses were lying through their teeth and the NBI certainly knew it. But NBI chief Reynaldo Wycoco continued to peddle the story and came up with the ridiculous claim that in the case of Dacer, the corpus delicti was not the body but the killing itself. Duh!
It was clear that the Arroyo government, its Justice department and the NBI were more than willing to frame their foes with a murder rap, which does not speak too well of the Arroyo government.
Other questions arise: Why was the skull never found? Why weren't other pieces of jewelry, which Dacer normally wears, found in the site where he and his driver were said to have been burned to a crisp four months ago?
A priest suddenly surfaced and claimed he had overheard Fidel Ramos' man, Jose Almonte, talking to the Dacer children and telling them to keep on mourning for their father as if he were really dead while Almonte communicates with the kidnappers.
The same priest also went to the "murder" site and concluded that given the report that Dacer and his driver were burned to a crisp, the site would have shown a bigger burnt area.
Not too long after, the children of Dacer suddenly called a press conference claiming they have accepted the fact that their father is dead, as they had the bones and dentures checked by a private physician. They also claimed that found in the same murder site were the dentures as well as pieces of jewelry that belonged to their father.
This development raises more questions than answers. How is it possible for the family to have gotten another set of dentures and bones after the NBI had already been through the site with its "evidence"? More to the point, did the NBI surrender the "evidence" to the Dacer family for a private test? Why couldn't the NBI find the jewelry and the denture which the family suddenly found long after the NBI had combed the place? How could a private physician positively identify the dentures and bones when they were presumably with the NBI forensics unless there were of course two sets of dentures and bones, both belonging to Dacer, which would be too incredulous.
Then too, what does this make of those eyewitnesses, who claimed they saw Dacer and his driver murdered and burned to a crisp?
What does this make too, of the Dacer children who claim to have found the jewelry in the same murder site, a development which doesn't quite jibe with the eyewitness' account. If the murderers were generous enough to give away a pair of shoes, wouldn't they also have taken the jewelry Dacer was wearing?
Even more strange is that Fidel Ramos who first tipped off the cops that Dacer was missing after the publicist was late for an hour for his meeting, didn't quite say why he didn't bother to call back Dacer, who had a mobile phone with him, to first check out if he was indeed missing.
And wonder of wonders. The day the Dacer children claimed that their father was indeed dead, Ramos had, in the newspapers, a condolence note, claiming too, that Dacer was dead.
It's the strangest case yet, and what seems clear is that too many people want the case closed, with the conclusion that Dacer is dead.
One wonders why there is that rush to declare Dacer dead.
Eto yung reaction ko dati.
It was ramos who called the attention of the police re dacer's kidnapping because na late lang ng isang oras si dacer. Makes you go hmmm....... (ah!~ siguro malakas ang ESP ni FVR na kinidnap si dacer kaya tinawag nya kaagad ang mga pulis.)
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