Salvador “Bubby” Dacer had reached the zenith of his career as a public relations practitioner when he and his driver Emmanuel Corbito were abducted and murdered nearly a decade ago. He was the most influential PR man of his time.   He was also the wealthiest of the lot, not so much because he made a killing from his moneyed clients as because he inherited a fortune from his deceased second wife.

 Dacer, a handsome, bemoustached Spanish-looking mestizo, could hardly write journalistic pieces. But the glib-tongued Bicolano was gifted with exceptional social skills, a knack for befriending fellowmen—perhaps his most important asset that enabled him to climb to the top in his chosen profession. When big-time businessmen were locked in make-or-break competition or feud with rivals over a major project and they needed an expert in crisis PR, the name of Dacer would usually crop up.  Crisis PR was his forte.

The flamboyant PR practitioner was often described as “the man in white” because he was always clad in an all-white attire. But his detractors snickered that he was the “devil in white” because of the devious scheme that he purportedly employed to attack the targets of some of his covert PR operations.

In the early 1990s, Dacer held office in a small corner at the ground floor of the Manila Hotel.  But his enterprise started to ride high after Fidel Ramos assumed the presidency.  He became the private publicist of Ramos and of Ramos’ most trusted Cabinet member, then National Security Adviser Jose Almonte. Not long after, Dacer transferred to a spacious room on the second floor of the hotel. He handled the PR work for the Swiss firm, Societe General de Surveillance, which had a P4-billion annual contract with the Bureau of Customs for the valuation of imported goods. He became a point man or liaison between the Philippines and Taiwan, a chore which he handled with gusto.  His services were also tapped by several public officials and private individuals, as well as prominent business firms.

During the 1998 presidential elections, Ramos tried to persuade Dacer to help in the campaign of a principal ally, then House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. the Lakas standard-bearer. But Dacer begged off, opting to stay neutral because the strongest candidate, Joseph Estrada, was his kumpadre.

When Estrada became president, Dacer maintained cordial relations with him.  He was occasionally asked by the then President to do some PR assignments for his administration.  Dacer enjoyed easy access to the Palace, from time to time accompanying foreign businessmen during courtesy calls to the President in which investments plans were usually discussed.  Dacer loved to tell people that his friendship with Estrada dated back to the days when he was a multi-awarded movie actor. Estrada played godfather when Dacer’s daughter Ampy was baptized. And when Ampy got married, Estrada was one of the wedding sponsors.

Despite his association with Estrada, the kind of political influence Dacer wielded at that time paled in comparison with the one he enjoyed during the Ramos presidency.  Estrada somewhat kept him at a distance, perhaps because he was not sure of Dacer’s loyalty, due to his long association with Ramos and Almonte. When the Estrada government unleashed a persecution campaign against Ramos over the so-called multi-billion pesos Expo scam and other anomalies, Dacer clumsily watched from the sidelines, cautiously steering clear of the raging conflict between two men dear to him.

Dacer’s troubles began when he was dragged into the rift between then National Police director general Roberto Lastimoso and then Chief Supt. (now senator) Panfilo Lacson, who was at that time head of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force.  Lastimoso’s hold on the top PNP post turned shaky amid allegation that he was remiss in his duty in going after a suspected drug lord. He sought Dacer’s help in the media war and the PR man came to his rescue. But Lastimoso lost the fight and was eventually replaced by Lacson  as PNP chief.

By 2000, the campaign to topple the government had escalated. Estrada found himself on the defensive as scandal after scandal in his administration was exposed and played up in the media. The President appeared to be losing the propaganda battle, confronted with allegations of excesses or abuse of power arising form his womanizing, his properties and bank accounts and his perceived laxity in the crackdown on suspected smugglers.  The most damaging of these scandals were the so-called juetengate and alleged insider trading of Best World Resources stocks.

That was the time the ties between Etrada and Dacer deteriorated.  Many thought that Dacer became estranged from the Palace because of suspicion that he was helping the Ramos camp in the “demolition campaign” against the administration. He was suspected of spying for the opposition.  Dacer confided to friends that there were people spreading intrigues against him to drive a wedge between him and Estrada. But just as everybody was beginning to think that Dacer had been isolated from the Malacañang, the barong-clad PR man showed up at the Palace sometime in September 2000, in the company of  a foreign businessman who had an investment proposition to make to Estrada.

 Dacer and Corbito were abducted and slain on Nov. 24, 2000.  It happened a few weeks after then Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis Singson hurled the earth-shaking accusation that Estrada was protecting and receiving bribe money from jueteng lords. Then Senator Teofisto Guingona Jr. followed up the Singson exposé by calling for the President’s resignation or impeachment in his “I Accuse” speech at the Senate. By then, the opposition’s attempt to impeach Estrada had snowballed at the House of Representatives.

Estrada and Lacson found themselves instantly pinpointed as the prime suspects behind the Dacer-Corbito murder on the day the media broke the news of their disappearance.  And now here comes the sworn affidavit of former police Supt. Cesar Mancao, who used to be Lacson’s subordinate at PAOCTF, implicating Estrada and Lacson as the alleged masterminds of the gruesome crime.

Then and now, Estrada and Lacson have vehemently denied any involvement in the double murder. They have lashed back at the Arroyo administration for portraying them as the brains behind the slayings, allegedly for political reasons. Estrada says the administration is after him because his bid for the presidency in the 2010 elections is getting stronger.  Lacson rants that the Palace is moving heaven and earth to nail him down in the murder case because of his incessant and unflinching exposé of graft and corruption in the administration. He lost no time in rebutting the portions of the Mancao testimony that were severely damaging to him. But Dacer’s daughter Karina revealed that shortly before her father was killed, he told members of his family that if something happened to him, Lacson should be blamed.

Estrada says there was no reason whatsoever for him to wish Dacer silenced or killed because they were “good friends.” To prove his point, he says Dacer, together with his daughter Ampy and her husband (Estrada’s wedding godchildren) visited him at the Palace two days before the Dacer-Corbito abduction. He recalls that in that visit, Dacer promised to help him with the media. Former Chief Supt. Reynaldo Berroya, who was once Estrada’s nemesis, told the media that he did not think Estrada gave any order to eliminate Dacer, virtually exonerating the former president. After a lengthy investigation, then Justice Secretary Hernando Perez on June 25, 2001 cleared Estrada “for lack of evidence.”

f_maragay@yahoo.com