ROBREDO: LACSON WILL BE ARRESTED SOON / PALACE: LACSON MOLE IN GOVT
MANILA, DECEMBER 9, 2010 (STAR) By Cecile Suerte Felipe - Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo assured the people yesterday that the arrest of fugitive Sen. Panfilo Lacson is only a matter of time.
"I'm confident that sooner or later he will be arrested," said Robredo.
Although there is a need for the immediate arrest of Lacson, Robredo said Lacson is not a security threat despite being a senator and a former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Robredo said Lacson is facing double murder charges for the killing of publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.
"His case is confined to a family, this should be treated as an ordinary crime," he pointed out.
He said the government should not telegraph its plans concerning Lacson, as this might help him elude arrest.
Robredo cited as an example the case of Sen. Gregorio Honasan, who was finally arrested by elements of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) when there was no information about the manhunt against him.
"When we talk about the manhunt, he (Lacson) will be more careful and will surely anticipate the operations of government forces," he explained.
Robredo also justified his decision to reject the proposal to offer reward money for any information leading to the arrest of Lacson, who has been in hiding since early this year before a Manila judge could issue a warrant of arrest for the senator.
Meantime, the Dacer family and the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) yesterday started a campaign to raise P2 million for a reward fund for the arrest of Lacson. – With Reinir Padua
FROM THE DAILY TRIBUNE
Palace says Lacson mole should be DoJ's lookout By Aytch S. de la Cruz 12/08/2010
(TRIBUNE) It behooves the Department of Justice (DoJ) to do something about possible leaks that one of its officials said were likely on the operations the government is supposedly conducting for the capture of fugitive Sen. Panfilo Lacson, the Palace indicated yesterday.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the possibility of a Lacson mole in the government "should be a cause of concern" as he added that Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III who raised of possibility of somebody leaking the government moves that allowed the senator to evade arrest must do something about it.
"If there is a concern, they should plug the leak. We have no knowledge where that leak is coming from. If the Undersecretary feels that there is some leakage of information then it behooves them to fix that leak and make sure that the efforts to secure Senator Ping Lacson should not be accompanied with leakages," Lacierda said.
"For any government official, any leakage is something that should be a cause for concern. If there are sensitive information being disclosed and divulged then that should really be a cause for worry for the government regardless of whether this is a case of Senator Ping Lacson," he added.
Lacierda also shrugged off widespread speculations that members of the Aquino administration are coddling Lacson, which was implied in the DoJ official's hinting somebody in government supplying information to the fugitive legislator.
Lacierda added Malacañang is leaving it up to the DoJ in dealing with NBI agents in asking them to explain their being unaware of Lacson's lair despite the reliability of the intelligence information they have gathered thus far.
The Palace official reiterated that the government doesn't want to hold suspicions on the integrity of NBI Director Magtanggol Gatdula who Lacierda said has shown a high level of professionalism.
Gatdula is known as one of Lacson's closest associates during his heyday in the police force thus there are some people who can't help but cast doubts with respect to his capability in handling the Lacson manhunt.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) also defended the creation of multiple tracker teams to locate Lacson.
Lacson is suspected as the alleged mastermind in the abduction and murder of noted publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.
Baraan said he does not see anything wrong with the multiple tracker team formed in order to hunt down and implement the arrest warrant against Senator Lacson.
However, Baraan noted that it's not easy for these distinct and separate groups because of the possibility that the government law enforcers themselves may end up in an encounter if there's no enough coordination between them.
Because of this, Baraan assured the proper and continuous cooperation between the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in order to determine the exact location of the senator.
Under the law, the PNP has the sole jurisdiction to serve the court warrant, however, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) may help through intelligence gathering and as a support team to the PNP if there will be an unexpected forceful resistance on the part of the fugitive from justice.
Just like any other wanted persons, the PNP will continuously conduct operations to track down Lacson, who left the country early this year before an arrest warrant was issued against him by a Manila court.
Earlier, operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) swooped down on a paper mill compound in Quezon City in its hunt against Lacson but the operation yielded negative results.
The PNP spokesman maintained that the former PNP chief does not pose any security threat.
"The PNP can say that he is not a security threat, he is a fugitive from the law," he said.
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