Mancao opposes transfer to Manila jail
Former police Senior Supt. Cesar Mancao II, one of the suspects in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case, yesterday filed a motion before the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) opposing his transfer to the Manila City Jail.
Mancao expressed his preference to stay at his NBI detention facility when he filed a motion before Judge Myra Garcia-Fernandez of the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 18 opposing his transfer.
He asked the court to deny the prayer of his three fellow accused in the case seeking his transfer to Manila City Jail from the NBI.
“At the onset, we wish to manifest that we adopt in toto all of the manifestations made by state prosecutor Hazel Valdez in open court last June 17 by way of opposition to the motion filed by accused Marino Soberano, Jose Escalante and Mauro Torres to commit Mancao to the MCJ,” Mancao said through his counsel.
Mancao, in his motion, said there is nothing irregular or illegal in his being under the protective custody of the NBI, an agency directly under the DOJ. Republic Act No. 6981, or An Act Providing For a Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Program and For Other Purposes, specifically mandates the DOJ to be the head agency in the implementation of the law.
He noted that the DOJ representative argued that placing him under NBI custody does not usurp the supervisory power of the court under Rule 114 of the Rules of Court. “It is merely giving life to the mandate of the law on protection of witnesses whose lives may be in danger.”
Wednesday last week, the Manila RTC granted the motion of Mancao to postpone his arraignment to enable Mancao’s lawyer, Arnedo Valera, to further study the charges against his client.
Mancao returned on June 4 from the United States where he fled in 2001, a year after the murders of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito had been committed.