By Joyce Pangco Pa?ares

CLARKFIELD?Former Senior Supt. Cesar Mancao has tagged more than five suspects, including some Estrada administration officials, in the Dacer-Corbito double-murder case, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said here Tuesday.

Mancao, himself a suspect in the case, arrives in Manila from the United States?from where he is being extradited?in two weeks, and presumably to testify against the people named in his sworn statement.

Gonzalez said the document was ?enough to establish probable cause to file criminal charges? against the people Mancao implicates in the murder of publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, in 2000.

?He mentioned several names in his affidavit, including some government officials,? Gonzalez said.

?Some were not really involved, but of the names he mentioned, more than five were implicated as suspects.?

Dacer and Corbito were abducted in broad daylight along the South Superhighway on Nov. 24, 2000, and by gunmen believed to be members of the police force.

Their charred bodies were found four days later in a creek in Indang, Cavite.

Mancao aside, two other former police officials?Senior Supts. Michael Ray Aquino and Glenn Dumlao, both in the United States, and also to be extradited?have been tagged as suspects in the case.

All three had worked for Panfilo Lacson, who was then head of the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission under President Joseph Estrada. He is now a senator.

Gonzalez declined to comment when asked whether an incumbent senator and a former president had a hand in the murders.

Lacson and Estrada both denied involvement in the case even before Mancao?s affidavit could be made public. Estrada was driven from power in 2001 and convicted of plunder in September 2007, but was pardoned by President Arroyo a few weeks later.

?If I were the judge, that [Mancao?s affidavit] would be sufficient to convict?if not, to at least establish probable cause to file criminal charges,? Gonzalez said.

?But it will be up to the judge to determine whether guilt beyond reasonable doubt can be established.?

Gonzalez said he received a copy of Mancao?s affidavit on the third week of February, and that it was also the last time he was able to talk to him.

But he said he was in constant communication with his wife, who had kept repeating Mancao?s request not to be turned over to the National Police but instead fetched and minded by NBI agents.

Gonzalez said Mancao would qualify as a state witness in the case because he was ?not the most guilty? of the suspects.

?But if he is involved in other cases, such as the Kuratong Baleleng rubout, he will not be cleared. That will be a separate case,? he said.

Mancao, along with Dumlao and Aquino, is also being implicated in the case, where 12 suspected kidnappers were executed during Lacson?s watch.

Lacson had earlier challenged the administration to make Mancao?s affidavit public, but Press Secretary Cerge Remonde advised him not to overreact unless he wanted to attract suspicion over the case.

?The only time we can make a reaction is when Mancao has already arrived,? Remonde said.

?Those who will overreact and make premature reactions will only make themselves suspects as to why they are overreacting.?