Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez on Thursday threatened to make public the affidavit of former police officer Cezar Mancao as he feels there are people working to prevent him and former police officer Glen Dumlao from being brought back to the Philippines to testify in the murder of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer.

Gonzalez made the threat after receiving information that Dumlao's camp has filed a petition for habeas corpus and injunction before a United States court, delaying the former police officer's scheduled flight back to Manila on Sunday.

He said in a press conference that the team the National Bureau of Investigation sent to the US to fetch Dumlao reported to him that Dumlao has been scheduled to appear before a US court on Friday.

Gonzalez said he had already informed the Philippine embassy in the US about the latest development in Dumlao's extradition case, and asked them to attend the hearing and oppose the petitions.

Suspicious

The secretary, meanwhile, said that Dumlao's latest legal move is suspicious, and that "somebody" must be trying to prevent the former police officer from being extradited. He said there could also be moves to prevent Mancao from returning to Manila.

He said he will be forced to release to the public Mancao's affidavit if he sees indications that the same people are also moving against the police officer's extradition.

A US court on December 2008 approved the Philippine government's request for Dumlao's extradition. The request was made by the government after Dumlao was arrested by US authorities last November.

Gonzalez said the extradition order was supposed to be final and executory. He said it seemed odd that Dumlao's camp would wait for several months before filing a petition to the extradition.

The secretary had confirmed that Mancao has admitted his part in the murders of Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, in November 2001. He said Mancao named big people in his affidavit, but refused to identify them.

A Philippine Star report, quoting Mancao's supposed affidavit, said Sen. Panfilo Lacson was tagged by Mancao as the mastermind in the murder.

Mancao, Dumlao affidavit

Demetrio Custodio, lawyer of the Dacer family Atty. Demetrio Custodio, claimed in an interview on ANC's Talk Back program that Mancao's affidavit corroborated Dumlao’s original affidavit pinning down a "higher official" in the murders.

In the same interview, Senior State Prosecutor Phillip Kimpo revealed that Dumlao issued three affidavits on the case.

The first one, which was handwritten, linked police superintendents Michael Ray Aquino and Mancao and a higher official with code name ‘71.’ The second affidavit stated that he was only coerced to write the first affidavit and pin down Lacson.

A third one, executed while his extradition was already being processed, affirmed the authenticity of the first. -- report from Marieton Pacheco, ABS-CBN News