Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Friday said he had "absolutely nothing to do" with the murders of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito, adding he will not escape and will face whatever case will be filed against him by the government.

"Haharapin ko ito. Mananalig ako na katotohanan pa rin ang mananaig. Hindi ko ito tatakasan. Haharapin ko ito head on....I have absolutely nothing to do with the Dacer-Corbito case," Lacson told radio dzMM. (I will face this. I'm confident that the truth will prevail. I will not escape. I will face this head on because I have absolutely nothing to do with the Dacer-Corbito case.)

Lacson, who headed concurrently the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) when Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito were murdered, made the statement after the Philippine Daily Inquirer published an article on former police superintendent Cezar Mancao's supposed February 14 affidavit.

In the newspaper report, Mancao said in his affidavit that he was present when fellow former police superintendent Michael Ray Aquino told Lacson: "Tatapusin muna namin si Delta, sir, kasi naiirita na si Bigote sa kanya."

The report said Delta was a codename for Dacer and "sir" was Lacson. The word Bigote, meanwhile, refers to former President Joseph Estrada. It added that the supposed conversation happened inside Lacson's vehicle en route to a Japanese restaurant in October 2000.

Never happened

In the radio dzMM interview, Lacson said the supposed conversation did not happen. He said Mancao, throughout his PNP chief days, never rode with him in his service vehicle.

He also said that the supposed affidavit depicted him as a stupid man for making sensitive instructions in front of people who are not supposed to know.

"First of all, the supposed conversation and the incident never occured," he said, adding that he always leaves with his aide- de-camp, Sergeant Oximoso.

Lacson, meanwhile, admitted meeting with Mancao and Aquino after he won a seat in the Senate in 2001, but denied that he gave the two instructions to hide abroad.

Lacson said the two asked for his permission to leave for America. "Who am I to stop them?" he said.

The senator also admitted meeting Mancao in Florida twice, but denied that they had a conversation with his former operative about the Dacer-Corbito case.

The newspaper report said that, according to Mancao's affidavit, Lacson gave him and Aquino instructions to leave the country after former superintendent Glenn Dumlao was arrested by the PNP’s Intelligence Group and executed an affidavit about the murders.

Dumlao cleared me

In the interview, Lacson said that his name was cleared in Dumlao's first handwritten affidavit, which was submitted to the police after his arrest.

He said there was a portion in the affidavit where Dumlao asked Aquino: “Alam ba ni 7-1 ito?”

Lacson said 7-1 was his call sign when he was still PNP and PAOCTF chief.

Lacson said Aquino’s supposed reply to Dumlao was, “Bahala na ang Malacañang na magsabi sa kanya (It’s up to Malacañang to tell him),” which refers to former President Estrada.
 
He added that Mancao, in previous affidavits, also cleared him of the murders.

Lacson believes Mancao was pressured by Malacañang to implicate him in the murders.

He said Malacañang had been seriously looking for ways to prevent him from exposing corruption in government, and implicating him to the Dacer-Corbito murders could be one of those desperate attempts.