Kidnapping and murder On November 24, 2000, Dacer and Corbito, while on their way to the former's office at the
Manila Hotel, were abducted at the intersection of
South Superhighway and Zobel Roxas Street at the city boundary of
Makati and
Manila. Later in the night, they were reportedly killed by strangulation and their bodies were burned. Three days later, Dacer's car was found abandoned in
Maragondon, Cavite. Their charred remains, found in 2001 in
Indang,
in the same province, were positively identified.
Testimonies Members of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) were the suspects as claimed by Jimmy Lopez, a PAOCTF civilian agent and former barangay captain, and Alex Diloy, in a press conference on March 29, 2001. The two admitted their participation in the crime and identified twelve other co-conspirators including four PAOCTF members, particularly, SPO4 Marino Soberano (according to the NBI, was present in the raid near Dacer's house and the crime) and SPO3 Mauro Torres.
Later developments on the case A testimony of a former ranking official of the PAOCTF led to the capture of seven agents allegedly linked to the case. Three former police generals were also included through a petition granted by the CA. In 2006, the Manila RTC, finding probable cause to prosecute Mancao, Aquino and 18 others for the murders, ordered the arrest of the two. Mancao later agreed to turn state witness, but in 2011, the CA declared him unfit to serve as such, citing mistakes in his affidavits. He was subsequently removed from the Witness Protection Program. He was acquitted later that year. Dumlao turned state witness in 2009 and was dropped from the list of the accused; the case against Aquino was dismissed by the Manila RTC in 2012. and, nine days later, former SPO1 Rolando Lacasandile in
Quezon City.
Conviction In September 2017, Manila RTC Branch 18, while acquitting Mancao and Soberano for lack of evidence, convicted former SPO3 Mauro Torres, sentencing him to
life imprisonment without eligibility of a
parole. Torres had admitted being the one who strangled the victims.
United States court ruling In January 2014, a
district court in
North Carolina,
United States ordered former P/Supt. Aquino to pay Dacer's daughters
$4.2 million in damages. The daughters used the
Torture Victim Protection Act, allowing US courts to hear human rights abuse cases committed outside the said country. ==Aftermath==