For the first time since he was extradited from the United States last June, former police officer Cezar Mancao II crossed path with former president Joseph Estrada, whom he linked to the killing of veteran publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in 2000. Both Mancao and Estrada attended the birthday party of lawyer Ferdinand Topacio Monday night but were noticeably ignoring each other, said friends who attended the party. Topacio is Mancao's legal counsel in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case. He is also the lawyer of the militant transport group Pasang-Masda, of which Estrada is an honorary chairman. Estrada, who came first, looked stumped when Mancao arrived, according to Pia Arcangel-Halili's report on QTV's Balitanghali Tuesday. The deposed leader said had he known Mancao would be in the same party, he would not have attended. “If I only knew, I wouldn't have come here. That's why I didn't go near him,” Estrada told reporters. But Mancao said Estrada waved his hand to him. “We just gave hand signals,” he said. The report said Mancao appeared awkward with Estrada, who sat in the same table. The report added that Mancao greeted the party's attendees, except Estrada. Topacio explained why he invited the two personalities in his party. “There is no malice. There is no politics here,” he said. Mancao was a ranking officer at the now defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, headed by former national police chief Panfilo Lacson, now a senator. They were implicated in the killings of public relations man Buddy Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito. At the height of the investigation in 2001, Mancao fled to the United States. He was extradited last June 4, 2009. In an affidavit he executed on Feb. 14, 2009, Mancao claimed he heard Lacson order former police Chief Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino to “neutralize” a certain Bero – who Mancao said was former Chief Superintendent Reynaldo Berroya, Lacson's long-time nemesis. According to the affidavit, Lacson said Bero must be killed simultaneously with “Delta” (Dacer) because “Bi-gote” was already peeved byhim. Mancao said Bigote was Estrada. “Lacson however insisted that Aquino operate on both Berroya and Dacer simultaneously, saying ‘Take them both,' which obviously meant that Aquino operate on Dacer and Berroya at the same time and to just see who is killed first,” his affidavit reads. Both Lacson and Estrada had repeatedly denied having any involvement in those cases.
