LACSON STILL DEFIANT: I'D RATHER BE DEAD THAN ARRESTED WITHOUT JUSTICE
MANILA, DECEMBER 3, 2010 (STAR) By Christina Mendez - Breaking his silence after almost 11 months in hiding, fugitive Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson declared yesterday that he will continue to evade the long arm of the law until justice is served.
Otherwise, he'd rather be dead.
Lacson decried what he described as injustice when the Department of Justice implicated him in the kidnap-slay of former publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.
"I will only come out when justice is rightly served, or when I'm already dead," he said in a strongly-worded statement sent to members of the Senate media.
"It may not be the best way to spend geezerhood, but unless you get me ahead of my time, I prefer to suffer in pain but with dignity, sitting alone with my conscience for the rest of my life, rather than do time in jail for a crime I did not commit," Lacson said.
Lacson, former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) professed his innocence over the crime committed some 10 years ago or in November 2000, barely a few months before former President Joseph Estrada was removed from office.
Lacson was then the concurrent chief of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) when Dacer and Corbito were snatched along South Superhighway on the boundary of Makati City and Manila.
They were reported kidnapped and their burned bodies were later found dumped in Cavite City months after their disappearance.
Lacson was forced to resign as police chief after Estrada's downfall.
In the wake of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima's pronouncement of putting out a P2-million reward for his arrest, Lacson asked the justice department – which has direct supervision on the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) – to stop looking for him.
The NBI is now headed by former police Gen. Magtanggol Gatdula, one of Lacson's deputy directors at the PAOCTF. Another deputy, former police Col. Cezar Mancao II, has turned against the senator.
"Don't look for me. Look at the evidence. It's right under your nose. It won't cost you two centavos to fulfill your duty to provide justice to all concerned," Lacson said.
"The facts are too glaring to ignore. For example, in 2009, my lone accuser, Cezar Mancao II, after freely admitting to having been pressured and promised a good life by the previous regime, applied to become a state witness and be dropped as a principal accused by testifying that sometime in September, or early part of October 2000, when ex-President Estrada was out of the country, he overheard me order a murder to be committed," he said.
"Never mind that unassailable documents say that I was out of the country during that time, hence the physical impossibility of having engaged in that supposed car conversation."
Lacson lashed out at Mancao for implicating him in the gruesome crime.
"Last Nov. 11, 2010, to appear to be the least guilty and qualify as a state witness, he manifested before the same court through his lawyer that he only learned of the sordid affair 'ex post facto' or after the fact."
"He 'knew' but he didn't know. Should I take his place in jail?"
Quoting lawyers like De Lima, Lacson said, "untrue in one thing, untrue in everything."
Lacson also appealed to De Lima to take a look at his appeal for reconsideration.
"My only appeal is for the honorable Secretary of Justice to exercise what she said is her 'plenary power' to ask the court to withdraw the information and conduct a reinvestigation," he said.
Face the music
De Lima, for her part, appealed to Lacson to surface and face the criminal charge filed against him.
"He should follow the judicial and legal process," she said.
De Lima urged Lacson to surrender to authorities first before her office considers his requests, including a reinvestigation of charges and the lifting of arrest warrant against him.
Malacañang, meanwhile, refused to put color to Lacson's latest statement and said the former PNP chief knows very well how it is to go after fugitives.
But deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte suggested it would still be best for Lacson to surrender to evade a humiliating arrest, adding that the senator "will be afforded the process that is accorded to everybody."
Tracker teams
The PNP yesterday formed tracker teams to hunt down Lacson in any part of the country and "even beyond borders."
PNP spokesman Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr. said Lacson's safety and security will be guaranteed once he is here.
Reports had it that Lacson, who was last monitored in Hong Kong, has returned to the country.
De Lima claimed they have established the whereabouts of the fugitive senator.
Indefensible
The lawyer of Mancao, on the other hand, described Lacson's refusal to surrender to authorities as "indefensible, unjustifiable and unconscionable," as he urged the Senate to surrender the fugitive.
In a statement, Ferdinand Topacio, legal counsel of Mancao, also challenged the Lacson to do his duty as officer of the court and surrender himself immediately.
Topacio said the fact remains that there is a standing warrant of arrest against the senator issued by a court of competent jurisdiction.
The group Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), also urged the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and DOJ to get their act together in locating and capturing Lacson.
'Lift arrest warrant'
Former Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz, a personal friend of Lacson, yesterday supported calls for the lifting of the arrest warrant against the fugitive legislator so he would come out of hiding.
"He left only because of the arrest (warrant). If there was no warrant, he would be here. I personally believe that if the warrant of arrest is removed, then he would personally surface and face his accusers," Cruz said.
Bounty for Ping
Early this week, senators reacted differently to the bounty offer for Lacson's arrest.
Sen. Gregorio Honasan finds the P2-million reward "counter-productive."
"This is counter-productive because we have due process. But I say this with a lot of bias since he is my classmate. His life is in danger," said Honasan, who was Lacson's classmate at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) batch of 1971.
However, Honasan joined Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile in saying that the reward is the judgment call of the DOJ.
Minority leader Alan Peter Cayetano said the DOJ has to treat Lacson like any other fugitive from justice.
Cayetano reiterated that Lacson's case is a test of the political will of the new administration – how it will treat someone who is perceived to be its ally but also occupies a high government position.
He also said that Lacson will be given due process once the Senate starts hearing on the ethics complaint filed against him. – With Delon Porcalla, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Sandy Araneta, Michael Punongbayan, Evelyn Macairan, Edu Punay
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