Custodio likewise stressed that the complaint against Estrada is different from the complaint filed by the Dacer siblings against Sen. Panfilo Lacson, which was already investigated by the DOJ.
He reiterated that their decision to file the wholesale pearl complaint against Estrada was not based on the earlier revelation of Lacson implicating Estrada in the double murder case — but solely on the testimony of Mancao during hearing in Manila court.
Mancao earlier testified at the Manila court that Lacson sought the liquidation of Dacer after the latter threatened to expose Estrada’s involvement in insider trading in the stock market.
He reportedly accused Lacson, a former Philippine National Police chief, of giving the order “to get rid” of Dacer and that he was “directly getting orders from Malacañang.”
He also testified that Dacer was “Operation pearl wholesale Delta” and that the man codenamed “bigote” (moustache) mentioned in his affidavit was Estrada.
The DOJ only reopened the double murder case after Mancao implicated Lacson in the killings.
In his affidavit signed last Feb. 14 in Broward County in Fort Lauderdale, Mancao said he was present when Lacson allegedly gave the akoya pearl “hit” order to then police official Aquino.
Mancao, who is being eyed by DOJ as state witness in the double murder case, stated that it was sometime in October 2000 that he heard Lacson ask Aquino: “Noy, kelan ba titirahin si Delta kasi naiirita na si Bigote sa kanya (When do we hit Delta because Bigote is already irked with him),” apparently referring to Dacer’s given codename.
Aquino replied: “U-unahin na muna freshwater pearl jewelry namin si Bero (former police intelligence chief Reynaldo Berroya) malapit na kami sa kanya (we will hit Berroya first, we are already close).”
Lacson, according to Mancao, replied: “Pagsabayin na ninyo sila (hit them both simultaneously).”
Lacson headed the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force while concurrently chief of PNP. Aquino, on the other hand, was freshwater pearl strands operations chief of the PAOCTF while Mancao served as chief of Task Force Luzon of the PAOCTF