The camp of former President Joseph Estrada welcomed on Saturday the pronouncement by the daughters of slain publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer that they are not inclined to seek the indictment of the former President despite court testimony pointing to him as one of the masterminds.

Estrada’s spokesperson Margaux Salcedo said the former President was glad that members of the Dacer family are convinced that he has nothing to do with the killing of their patriarch and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito in 2000.

“President Erap has nothing to do with it. We are glad that President Estrada himself was cleared by the Dacer family,” Salcedo said at the weekly “Kapihan sa Sulo” news forum in Quezon City.

Through their lawyer Demetrio Custodio, Dacer sisters Carina, Sabina, Emily, and Amparo said they saw no sufficient basis to include Estrada in the double murder complaint.

This, despite the testimony of former Philippine National Police (PNP) Senior Superintendent Cesar Mancao II before the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) that former PNP chief now Sen. Panfilo Lacson and Estrada were behind the murders of Dacer and Corbito.

Mancao’s testimony was relayed to media by his lawyer Ferdinand Topacio after the recent hearing on the double murder case before the sala of RTC Judge Myra Garcia Fernandez. Attorney Custodio, meanwhile, has discounted this information relayed by Topacio.

Salcedo said Mancao’s lawyer should apologize for his “misleading and deceptive” statement.

“He (Topacio) owes the public an apology. He was not only destroying the reputation of President Estrada but also serving injustice to Mr. Dacer himself,” she said.