MANILA, Philippines— (UPDATE 2) Senator Panfilo Lacson on Monday exposed former President Joseph Estrada’s extensive involvement in the illegal numbers game “jueteng,” rice smuggling, and “other misdeeds” during his short-lived administration from 1998 to early 2001.

In a privilege speech, Lacson also hinted Estrada may have a hand in the 2000 murders of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito.

Lacson said Estrada used to issue orders directly to his police officers way back when Lacson was still the chief of the Philippine National Police.

The top police official during Estrada’s time did not say it outright but his take on Estrada’s relationship with the PNP seems to buttress the claim of state witness and former police official Cezar Mancao II that Estrada approved Operation Delta, the alleged plan to liquidate Dacer.

“(I) have personal knowledge on this, during his presidency, he was giving direct orders and instructions deep into the layers of the entire government bureaucracy, the PNP, and Presidential Anti Organized Crime Task Force,” Lacson told fellow senators.

He made the insinuation after lashing out at Estrada for accusing him of “supervising” Mancao’s recent testimony on an operation called Oplan Delta to neutralize Dacer.

Lacson denied he knew about such operation.

“Instead of just defending himself, why is he pointing a finger at someone else?” he asked.

Lacson said his relationship with then President Estrada soured when the president asked him to allow the jueteng to continue under Lacson’s watch as Philippine National Police chief.

He spoke of two occasions when Estrada had asked him to allow jueteng operations to continue without any interference from authorities. Lacson said Estrada strongly implied in one of their meetings that his appointment as PNP chief would hinge on his giving way to jueteng operations.

At that time, Lacson said he told Estrada he did not want to have anything to do with the P5 million monthly jueteng payola being given by Ilocos Sur Governor Chavit Singson to the PNP chief.

He said he learned four months after his appointment that Estrada asked Singson to remit the payola intended for him.

“Jueteng became a sore point between me and Mr. Estrada,” he said.

Lacson said his friends would tell him later that Edsa 2, which toppled Estrada in January 2001, “would not have happened if I went along with Mr. Estrada and Governor Singson and altogether tolerated jueteng operations.”

A few minutes before he delivered his speech, Lacson told reporters that the Estrada camp was trying to work on him up until Sunday night.

He said that since last week three men, all common friends of his and Estrada, had approached him on his privilege speech.

The last person who approached him last Sunday night asked him to postpone the speech on Monday so that Lacson and Estrada could meet and talk.

Lacson made it clear he did not know whether Estrada was aware of this overture of their common friend.

He said he could no longer postpone his plan to deliver the speech because everything was all set in the Senate.

The Senate session hall was packed with people, including whistleblowers Sandra Cam, Vidal Doble, and Boy Barredo.

Cam was the one who blew the whistle on jueteng (a numbers game) against the family members of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo; Doble, the 2005 Hello Garci scandal; and Barredo, the P728-million fertilizer fund scam.