DOJ presents first witness in Dacer-Corbito case

A government witness identified yesterday a former member of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) as one of five men who took the car of Salvador "Bubby" Dacer on the day the slain publicist and his driver were snatched at gunpoint at Pablo Ocampo street (formerly Vito Cruz) and Sergio Osmeña Highway in Manila in November 2000.

Testifying in court, Willy Caboquin, a 28-year-old vendor, told Judge Myra Garcia Fernandez of Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 18 that he saw Senior Police Officer 2 Marino Soberano drive away with Dacer’s white Toyota Revo van.

The remains of Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, were found much later in a shallow grave in a remote barangay in Maragondon, Cavite.

Caboquin said Soberano was armed with an Armalite rifle, but when interviewed, Soberano denied the allegations.

During the almost three-hour hearing, Caboquin told Fernandez that on Nov. 24, 2000, at around 11 a.m. he was standing on a center island at that street intersection while waiting for the traffic lights to turn red when he saw a white vehicle overtake a white Toyota Revo and a man — whom he later identified as Soberano — knocked on the van’s door.

Armed with an Armalite rifle, Soberano, who was wearing a polo shirt on top of a police uniform, pulled Corbito out of the car when the driver rolled down the window, he added.

Caboquin told the court that he is an ambulant vendor who resided along the railroad tracks in Barangay San Antonio, Makati City.

Continuing with his testimony, Caboquin told the judge that after Soberano had grabbed Corbito, three other men, with pistols tucked in their waists, dragged the driver into a white van behind the Revo.

At that point, Corbito put his foot out to stop the armed man from pushing him into the van, prompting another man to step out of the driver’s side to forcibly push Corbito inside, he added.

Caboquin said two other gunmen then boarded the Revo and sat beside a man with mustache and in white attire — whom he later identified as Dacer.

They then drove away with the Revo, with Dacer as passenger, he added.

Caboquin said he last saw the Revo, along with a white car, white van, and a black and red car, make a U-turn and headed toward the south, traveling "farther than the Buendia flyover."

The black and red car was behind the white van, he added.

When he saw the white Toyota Revo ditched in a ravine in Maragondon, Cavite on television, he immediately recalled the incident at the corner of Osmeña and Ocampo, he added.

Caboquin said the following day, he learned that a man carrying a newspaper was asking around if anybody had witnessed the kidnapping of Dacer and Corbito.