PRESIDENT AQUINO AND SENATOR LACSON MET IN THE PALACE
MANILA, APRIL 27, 2011 (PHILIPPINE NEWS DAILY) Posted by Harold Hisona March 31st, 2011, 04:1 pm - A few days after he showed up in public, Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson went to Malacañang to meet with President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III on Tuesday.
Senator Ping Lacson had been hiding from the authorities for over thirteen months after he was involved in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case.
Beyond greeting, President Aquino said that Lacson also talked about his previous life, when he was still in the Wanted List of the Philippine authorities.
But the president admitted that he is no longer interested in knowing every detail of Lacson's past.
Prior to this, Lacson insisted that the current administration has nothing to do with his freedom after his case was dismissed by the Court of Appeals.
The senator said that he is not pleased on the news telling that he was aided by the administration because he has not actually felt it when he was still concealing his image.
However, Lacson made it clear that he has no hard feelings towards President Noynoy and that he is only asking for a fair justice without special favor.
Lacson also added that he is not an ally of the administration because up until now, the Department of Justice is still questioning the dismissal of his case by the Court of Appeals. We want to bring you the latest breaking news the easiest way possible, so we build a toolbar you can install in one click. Click Here to install Philippine News Daily
FROM MANILA STANDARD
Lacson: 'Travel papers were authentic'
SENATOR Panfilo Lacson insisted Monday that his travel documents were "authentic," rejecting the Foreign Affairs Departments' claim that they were otherwise when he flew back to the country late last month after a year of hiding.
"As far as I know and as far as I'm concerned, I came face to face with the [Hong Kong] consul who issued my travel documents, so I know it's authentic, Lacson said.
"It's still with me, but I don't want to go into details."
Lacson returned from Hong Kong via Cebu almost unnoticed, and after the Court of Appeals had rescinded the arrest warrant against him by the Manila Regional Trial Court over his alleged involvement in the murder of publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.
The two were abducted on a highway in Makati on their way to the Manila Hotel on Nov. 24, 2000. Their burned bodies were later found near a creek in Cavite province, and police soon established that they were tortured and strangled to death before being burned.
"I'm a Filipino," Lacson said.
"They can't deport me. It's my privilege to live here in our country, and I don't understand the big fuss over [what documents I used, where I'd been and where I'd hidden]."
Lacson was trying to answer Justice secretary Leila de Lima's charge that he had used fake travel documents to return and to explain because he is an elected official.
The consulates in Hong Kong, Macau, Xiamen and Guangzhou had denied having issued travel documents to him when he arrived on March 26, 2011 via Cathay Pacific at the Mactan International Airport. His arrival card indicated his travel documents were issued in Hong Kong on March 24, 2011. They expired on April 24, 2011.
Lacson recently met with President Benigno Aquino III, but refused to talk about that meeting except to express support for Malacañang's watered-down version of the controversial reproductive health bill.
The Justice Department suspects that high-ranking government officials and rich Filipino businessmen had coddled Lacson abroad after he slipped out of the country in January 2010 to elude arrest.
FROM THE TRIBUNE
Palace okays Noy's move seeking advice from Lacson By Aytch S. de la Cruz 04/27/2011
Malacañang sees no problem with President Aquino soliciting advice from his "good friend," Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, on police matters occasionally yet it keeps on vacillating to entertain the possibility of the lawmaker joining the Cabinet in the future.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda explained during a press briefing yesterday that Aquino was just being "consultative" when he sought Lacson's advice on who to pick as future chiefs of the Philippine National Police (PNP) during their meeting last month.
Aquino withaeld such information when he admitted to reporters that he met with Lacson three days after the senator returned following a 14-month hibernation to evade police officers' arrest owing to his previous involvement in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case in February last year.
"He [Aquino] consults a number of people who, he believes, can give him good advice and it's not remote for him to ask Senator Ping Lacson because he was formerly PNP chief. So it's not something that we would be surprised if he asked him because he's an expert there," Lacierda said, reacting to Lacson's disclosure.
Lacierda wouldn't claim whether the impression of Lacson serving as "unofficial adviser" to Aquino on police matters is appropriate but stressed that it's just natural for the President to seek the opinions of the people who are experts on certain areas of governance.
"He [Lacson] is a good friend of the President. I mean, he [Aquino] listens to all those especially in areas of their expertise, he would listen... I don't know if that makes him necessarily an adviser but certainly he would consult people," Lacierda said.
Speculation these days has been rife that Lacson is on the running towards becoming the next addition to Aquino's Cabinet, possibly replacing Acting Secretary Jesse Robredo of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), but nobody would like say whether such scenario is far from reality or not.
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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