MANILA, FEBRUARY 8, 2011 (MANILA TIMES) BY remaining a fugitive, Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson is openly flouting the law. We hope that he surfaces soon, or else be made to suffer its full measure. The moral authority of the government to enforce the rules of society diminishes when the system allows lawmakers to disregard the rule of law.
Worse, some high-ranking officials seem to be treating Sen. Lacson with so-called kid gloves in his alleged role in the double-murder case of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito. The senator has been hiding since January 2010, before a warrant of arrest was issued against him. He has eluded capture despite reports that he was merely hiding in the country.
At first, Sen. Lacson bemoaned political persecution by former President Gloria Arroyo as the motive for his legal problems. She, her husband and several of her people have been accused of corruption by many including the senator. While the senator's claims seemed logical during the term of Mrs. Arroyo, it does not seem so in the last eight months under a new President. President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino 3rd is in fact a former colleague of Sen. Lacson in the Senate.
Besides, Justice Sec. Leila de Lima and most others in the Aquino government are no fans of the past administration. After eight months in power, Sec. de Lima and others should have uncovered any politically motivated plot against Sen. Lacson. The decision to hunt down the senator suggests that there is sufficient merit for a court trial.
Also, the manhunt for the senator faced obstacles. For instance, the recommendation by Sec. de Lima to put a bounty on Sen. Lacson was rejected by Acting Sec. Jesse Robredo of the Department of Interior and Local Government, which controls the police. Sec. Robredo reasoned that the bounty would have been a waste of money, and that the police simply needed to work harder to capture the fugitive senator.
Then Sen. Lacson received his biggest break to date. The Court of Appeals recently dismissed the kidnapping and murder charges issued against him by the Regional Trial Court in Manila. Despite that, he remains in hiding.
The senator is apparently worried about the ominous signals from the Aquino administration. First, Sec. de Lima had insisted that the arrest warrant against the senator remained in effect until the dismissal of double-murder case becomes final and executory—or if the Court of Appeals quashes the arrest order. A few senators agreed with Sec. de Lima, but Sen. Franklin Drilon—also a former Justice secretary—cautioned her not to carry out the warrant of arrest given the Court of Appeals ruling.
Second, the Palace issued a statement that Sen. Lacson may yet be liable in the double murders despite the appellate court's ruling. That means he cannot use double jeopardy as a legal defense, if the Palace's legal opinion is to be believed.
Becoming a fugitive The debate whether Sen. Lacson is guilty in the murders is important, even central to this saga, but the media is not the proper forum to tackle that issue. That needs to be heard in a court of law, and one will presumably decide on the case some day, hopefully sooner rather than later.
It seems equally shaky to speculate about Sen. Lacson's motive to go into hiding—that it was the result of a guilty conscience, for instance. Hopefully, that too will be clarified when the senator finally surfaces and faces his accusers.
What seems indisputable is the fact that Sen. Lacson broke the law by becoming a fugitive. He may not have agreed with the arrest order and apparently thought it was severe by calling it persecution, but the law is widely accepted as harsh. Sen. Lacson knows that, and in fact was its chief enforcer when he headed the national police.
If Sen. Lacson had thought that the law that ordered his arrest was unfair, he did not seem to take notice of it before when he was busy putting other criminals away. It seems that he only complained about it when the rule was applied to him.
Need to be more firm
Sen. Lacson's colleagues at the Senate should be more firm against one of their own. As we have said before, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile was right to suspend last year the budget appropriated for Sen. Lacson's office. But Sen. Lacson's continued defiance demands that his colleagues now go further.
We hope to see expulsion proceedings against Sen. Lacson for becoming a fugitive. Those who make the laws should be held to a higher standard to protect the integrity of the Senate and to not undermine the authority of the courts.
Unlike in the double murder case, the senators need nothing else to act on the obvious—that it was criminal to defy the arrest order. Not content with that, Sen. Lacson has diverted the arguments to the national media, using it criticize Justice Sec. de Lima for going after him. And instead of facing his accusers in court, the senator has been using the media to demolish the credibility of those who will testify against him.
Certainly, Sen. Lacson deserves due process in the murder case. We hope he gets it. But the people also deserve leaders with a clear sense of right and wrong, elected officials who have a firm grasp of what is legal and illegal. We should have senators and other lawmakers who give primacy to the rule of law rather than to bending it in order to protect personal interests.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2011 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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