STRIKE BACK
MANILA,
JULY 8, 2011 (MANILA TIMES) By Bernice Camille V. Bauzon,
Reporter - AN official from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Wednesday
admitted that the travel document used by Sen. Panfilo Lacson to go back to
Manila after a year of hiding abroad was "fake."
Felipe Cariño, director for the passport division of the DFA-Office of
Consular Affairs (DFA-OCA), told reporters that Travel Document No. 34258
allegedly presented by Lacson when he returned to the country on March 26 was
never issued or released by Philippine posts abroad.
The authentic document bearing the same number as the senator's travel
document is still with the department, he said.
"It [Lacson's travel document] was manufactured," Cariño added.
Earlier, the Foreign Affairs department said that Lacson's travel document
from Hong Kong was never released by the Philippine Consulates General in Hong
Kong, Macau, Xiamen and Guangzhou.
Hong Kong is a special administrative region of the People' Republic of
China.
Cariño said that "efforts are being undertaken to get on the bottom to the
[travel document] inventory."
"There should be an enhancement on the security features [not only because of
the Lacson case], but as part of the overall solution," he added.
Cariño said that travel documents come in two kinds—a sheet of paper for
one-way direct travel and a manually scripted passport-like booklet for
emergency transit.
He added that both travel documents have none of the security features
currently contained in the existing e-passport.
The single sheet type, which bears no security features but merely signatures
of issuing consular officials, was the one purportedly used by Lacson.
The department also revealed that there are only about 20 travel documents
released daily by Philippine consular posts abroad, which are mainly issued for
emergency purposes.
Lacson went into hiding for more than one year before going back to the
country from Hong Kong early this year.
He arrived at Mactan International Airport in Cebu City more than a month
after the Court of Appeals junked a double-murder case against him.
The senator was implicated killing of publicist Salvador Dacer and Dacer's
driver, Emmanuel Corbito, back in November 2000.
Lacson then was then the head of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task
Force and also of the Philippine National Police under the administration of
then-President Joseph Estrada.
FROM MALAYA
Embattled Arroyos strike back BY GERARD NAVAL
[PHOTO- THE ARROYO FAMILY]
REP. Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo yesterday assailed the Aquino government for
the "political persecution" of his family.
"I am confident that the case against me will, in time, be dismissed as this
is borne not by a genuine pursuit for justice but by a continuing persecution of
my family," said Arroyo, son of former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria
Arroyo, in an interview after a hearing at the Department of Justice on the
P73.85-million tax evasion case filed by Bureau of Internal Revenue against him
and wife Angela.
He said the case should be dismissed because if is part of efforts of the
Aquino administration to persecute his family.
"We are being used to mask this administration's puny performance in
governance and lack in achievement," said Arroyo of the partylist group Ang
Galing Pinoy.
He said President Aquino should tell his officials to stop persecuting the
Arroyo family.
He said the public is "growing tired of this politics of hate."
During the hearing, the BIR reiterated its allegation that Mikey and his wife
violated the National Internal Revenue Code by paying only P2.4 million, P1.7
million and P376,000 in taxes for the years 2004, 2006 and 2007, when the couple
bought several properties worth millions from 2004 to 2009, including
residential houses in the US, in Lubao, Pampanga, and in Quezon City.
The couple reiterated that the bureau erred in computing the taxes they had
paid in those four years.
Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo, Mikey's uncle, questioned the
credibility of Sen. Panfilo Lacson in leading the reopening of the Senate
investigations into the "Jose Pidal" controversy.
Iggy said he was surprised that the "former fugitive brought this issue all
of a sudden after hiding for almost a year."
"He wants closure on this issue and I say, the Dacer-Corbito double murder
case needs closure, too. Isama na natin ang Kuratong Baleleng rubout case so he
should likewise truthfully answer these charges once and for all and maybe
re-investigate the case also," he said in a statement.
Lacson was implicated in the 2000 killing of PR man Salvador Dacer and driver
Emmanuel Corbito, during the Arroyo administration. He went into hiding in
January last year and surfaced in March after the Court of Appeals lifted a
warrant for his arrest.
Iggy Arroyo said the Department of Justice should reveal who facilitated and
conspired with Lacson while he was hiding.
He said Lacson's claim that he (Iggy) is not the real owner of the "Jose
Pidal" bank account is "old, rehash" issues that he will not even bother to
comment on.
He said unlike Lacson, "I will face these charges in court and will not run
away."
Lacson in 2003 delivered a privilege speech linking former First Gentleman
Mike Arroyo, Iggy's brother, to the Pidal accounts which were allegedly used for
money laundering. Iggy later claimed he owns the accounts. Recently, Lacson said
he might have evidence disproving Iggy's claim of ownership.
Iggy also said attacks against their family are coming from all fronts, from
the administration, which recently revealed irregularities in the Philippine
Charity Sweepstakes Office during the previous administration, and allies like
Lacson.
"I don't know if this is incidental or deliberate because they are hitting us
from all sides," he said.
San Juan Rep. Joseph Victor Ejercito, a son of former President Joseph
Estrada, said the Arroyo family may be pinned down for their corrupt procurement
of helicopters for the PNP, as Lacson recently alleged.
"Truly, nobody used and abused power the way GMA and her family did during
her reign of corruption and terror at the Palace," Ejercito said.
Lacson earlier said the Arroyos sold three second-hand helicopters to the PNP
after passing them off as brand new, at the price of P105 million each.
The Senate will investigate the transaction with the Manila Aerospace
Products Trading Corp. which Lacson said sold one Robinson R44 Ravel II and two
Robinson R44 Raven I units in 2009. – With Wendell
Vigilia
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2011 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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