Former police officer and fugitive murder suspect is no longer under government protection, with Justice Secretary Leila de Lima removed him from the Witness Protection Program.
“I have no more reason to keep him under the coverage of the WPP… I will be questioned if I insist on putting him in the WPP,” she said in a BusinessWorld report.
Mancao, whom the Department of Justice was expecting to testify on the murders of publicist Salvador Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito in 2000, escaped from the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation last week. He said he feared he would be killed when transferred from an NBI custodial center to the Manila City Jail.
Mancao said the WPP was riddled with corruption and that it would not be able to keep him safe. “It’s lamentable that he is bad-mouthing the program… I’m really offended by those allegations. He is already causing us a lot of embarrassment but please spare the program because you don’t know what you’re saying,” De Lima said. She said WPP funds undergo regular auditing.
She added that unless Mancao indicates he will surrender, the DOJ has no reason to “be nice to him.”
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