MANILA, Philippines – The help of the Interpol has been sought to find Senator Panfilo Lacson whose arrest has been ordered by a local court for murder, a police official said.

Lacson, who has been accused of masterminding the killings, left the country for Hong Kong on January 5, anticipating that he would face arrest, but Estipona said they could not locate him and would not rule out the possibility he had slipped back into the Philippines.

Estipona also said that copies of the arrest warrants were also served in the ancestral home and local residence of Lacson.

"Three teams as of now are looking for him in Metropolitan Manila and we have also furnished all regional offices of the investigation division with copies of the warrant of arrest," Estipona said.

Judge Myra Garcia Fernandez of the Manila regional trial court Branch 18 issued the arrest warrant on Friday for Lacson for the November 2000 murder of Salvador Dacer, a publicist of former president Fidel Ramos, and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, when the senator was then national police chief under then-president Joseph Estrada.

Philippine media have suggested Dacer was killed because of his knowledge of alleged wrongdoing in the Estrada administration.

Lacson has previously insisted he was innocent, saying the accusations amount to political persecution for his role as a critic of Arroyo.

Estrada, who was toppled in a popular uprising in 2001 and later convicted of widespread corruption in 2007, has also denied any involvement in the murders.