On-again, off-again

JEERS to the press for spotty reporting on the Dacer-Corbito murder case.

Initially, the press did follow up reports on the Dacer-Corbito murder case when the daughters of slain publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer filed last Sept. 16 a civil suit against former president Joseph Estrada, Sen. Panfilo Lacson and five other people allegedly involved in  Dacer’s murder. The sisters were claiming a total of $120 million in the suit (P5.16 billion at $43=P1), which was filed in the US District Court in North California.

But the updates on the civil suit in particular and the Dacer-Corbito murder case in general disappeared in the news within days. There were reports in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, GMANews.tv, and The Philippine Star to explain the civil case.  But these were the exceptions rather than the rule.

In February this year, the Dacer-Corbito case created little noise except as a skimpy backgrounder on reports that Lacson had disappeared after leaving the country in Jan. 2010.

Lacson was  head of the Estrada era task force whose members allegedly abducted Dacer. In a 2009 affidavit, former Sr. Supt. Cezar Mancao said Lacson ordered Dacer’s abduction reportedly for “being critical” of Estrada.  Following the abduction, Lacson allegedly instructed Mancao, then a member of the task force, to head an investigation meant to cover up the involvement of task force members.

One of Dacer’s letters to Estrada suggests that Lacson may have had a personal grudge against Dacer, after the latter “vehemently oppose[d]” the former’s appointment as PNP chief (See Newsbreak’s “Letters from Bubby Dacer”: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/03/
19/09/letters-bubby-dacer).

The articles of the most recent developments in the case provided little background, if at all. None explained why Estrada, Lacson and the five others may have been involved in the killing of Dacer and Corbito.

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