The most sought-after sheaf of papers in the country these days is now, according to Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, safely stashed in a bank vault. ?I don?t think I can be forgiven if it [is] lost,? Gonzalez told reporters.

Gonzalez says he alone has possession of the controversial and potentially explosive affidavit executed by former police official Cesar Mancao on the Dacer-Corbito double murder case. Given the usual condition of the paper landfill that the justice secretary calls his office on Padre Faura, it is understandable that he has decided to hide his copy of the Mancao affidavit in a safer place?where Gonzalez presumably will have less trouble finding it when the need arises.

But because the justice chief cannot be described as publicity-shy, he has also gleefully given us a taste of what he says are the contents of the document. According to Gonzalez, ?three to four? people who were holding public office at the time of the killings have been linked by Mancao to the murder of publicist Salvador ?Bubby? Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in his Feb. 14 affidavit.

Gonzalez said Mancao?s statements in the affidavit are sufficient to pin down the mastermind in the crime. ?Mancao is part of a close-knit group, so he knows. If you tie it with the statement of [Glenn] Dumlao, it will make a series of circumstances which will make a strong conclusion,? Gonzalez said.

Dumlao, like Mancao, was also an official of the now-defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force during the Estrada administration. Like Mancao, Dumlao is undergoing extradition proceedings in the United States, where a third task force official linked to the double murder, Michael Ray Aquino, is detained in a federal prison after being convicted on charges of illegally possessing classified US documents.

In Dumlao?s statement, contained in a separate, more accessible affidavit signed on June 12, 2001 before Assistant Prosecutor Nilo Pe?aflor, the former police officer admitted his participation in the crime and named his superiors Mancao and Aquino, as well as some of Dumlao?s subordinates, as the ones who planned and carried out the kidnapping and murder of Dacer and Corbito.

Records of the case in Branch 18 of the Manila Regional Trial Court say Aquino, then chief of the task force?s operations division, planned the murder with the help of Dumlao and Mancao. In September 2007, an amended information recommending that Dumlao and three other suspects be made state witnesses was denied by the court hearing the case, and the Supreme Court ultimately ordered the re-inclusion of Dumlao as an accused, along with Aquino and Mancao.

Aquino and Mancao fled the country soon after Dumlao implicated them in the murders. Dumlao also subsequently disappeared and later resurfaced in the US.

So, when the justice secretary says that the Mancao affidavit will complete the picture of the celebrated case, this is what he means: If Dumlao?s previous statement to the Manila court identified the people who actually planned and executed the grisly murders on the ground, the new affidavit from Mancao will name the people who hatched the idea and who gave the order to go ahead with the Mafia-like hits on Dacer and Corbito.

No wonder Gonzalez won?t even trust himself to keep the Mancao affidavit around him.

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The main reason why Gonzalez can?t reveal the contents of Mancao?s statements is that the former police officer himself will have to authenticate them in the court that is still hearing the Dacer-Corbito case. And since Mancao has expressed a willingness to return to do just that, under oath, it would be improper for the justice secretary to preempt Mancao?s expected authentication.

But what if Mancao disowns the deposition that he gave before US authorities upon his arrival? Gonzalez says there is little chance of that, because the justice chief has been made to understand that Mancao won?t retract and is even firm on testifying in court using his affidavit as a basis.

And Mancao, who is reportedly returning in a couple of weeks, has already expressed his desire to stop fighting his extradition to the Philippines to testify in the double murder. Gonzalez adds that the National Bureau of Investigation, which will probably have custody of Mancao upon his return, is ready to fetch Mancao in the US as soon as the Americans give the go-ahead.

(Dumlao has also allegedly said he will no longer fight his own extradition. It is unclear if Aquino, who is still doing time in a federal facility for the classified documents possession conviction, will also be returned to Manila to testify in the revived case.)

Mancao seems confident that he will no longer be classified as a suspect in the Dacer-Corbito killings, something that bolsters earlier reports that the former police official has already decided to turn state witness during the resumption of the trial. According to Gonzalez, Mancao has asked that he be allowed to return to the US after his testimony because ?he?s already settled there.?

Meanwhile, opposition Senator Panfilo Lacson, whom many people believe would categorically be identified as the mastermind of the double murder in Mancao?s testimony, seems unfazed by speculation that he would be linked to the case by his former proteg? and subordinate. ?If that is indeed the case, they might as well make the document public so we will know who was really behind the disappearance of Dacer and Corbito,? he said.

Simultaneous with renewed denials of any involvement in the case, Lacson has slammed the Arroyo administration for ?pressuring? Mancao to sign the affidavit ?even if the senator has given no indication that he knows what the document contains. A presidential spokesman has asked Lacson not to ?overreact? to reports of Mancao?s new statement and planned return, even as the Palace?disingenuously, many think ?has taken a ?hands-off? position on the fresh developments in the case.

Without access to either Mancao and his now-famous affidavit, all everyone can hope for is a speedy resolution of a case that is now almost a decade old?a consummation that the former police officer?s return will probably help in a big way. Then, when those who plotted to kill Dacer and Corbito are finally exposed and made to answer for the crime, perhaps some of our long-lost faith in our justice system would be restored.