MANILA, Philippines?The eldest son of ousted President Joseph Estrada came to his defense Tuesday, saying his accuser Sen. Panfilo Lacson was a ?desperate? man who was resorting to ?gutter talk, hearsay and fishwives? tales? to save himself.

Delivering his own privilege speech, Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada said Lacson was trying to hide behind parliamentary immunity to evade prosecution for the twin murders of publicist Salvador ?Bubby? Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito in 2000.

?Don?t throw stones if there is blood on your hands,? Estrada said, adding:

?The bottom line here is Sen. Panfilo Morena Lacson, in desperation, is now using the Senate floor to divert attention to former President Joseph Estrada and away from himself in connection with the forthcoming nonbailable double murder charge that will be filed against him in the double murder case.?

Estrada took the floor a day after Lacson delivered a privilege speech accusing the ousted President of, among others, involvement in the Dacer-Corbito murders, allowing the operation of the illegal numbers game ?jueteng? and accepting payola from it, and intervening in the release of smuggled rice and chicken during his abbreviated presidency.

He said Lacson was an ?ingrate? for attacking the former President who was purportedly instrumental in Lacson?s rise to director general in the Philippine National Police and subsequent election as senator in 2001 and 2007.

He added that he himself was delivering a privilege speech ?in defense of the honor of my father? even as he decried Lacson?s purported use of parliamentary privilege to ?lie through his teeth without having to account to anyone.?

But he refused to be interpellated by Lacson later.

Lawyer?s statement

Estrada informed the 19 senators present of the statement issued by Ferdinand Topacio, lawyer of former Senior Supt. Cezar Mancao II who is aspiring to become a state witness in the Dacer-Corbito case being tried in the Manila Regional Trial Court.

Topacio said in his statement: ?In my honest opinion as a lawyer and based on the evidence so far adduced in court by my client, [Mancao], the only direct evidence with respect to the mastermind in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case pertains to Sen. Panfilo Lacson.?

Estrada said the evidence on his father?s participation in the twin murders ?is at best sketchy thus far, and in my humble opinion, will not pass muster either in a court of law or before any preliminary investigation in the Department of Justice.?

He repeatedly called Lacson a ?liar,? a trait which, he said, was the ?the hallmark of the administration.?

He took Lacson to task for having ?the audacity to use God?s name? in saying: ?God save the Philippines from Joseph Ejercito alias Joseph Estrada.?

He said Lacson should not ?include God in his lies.?

Estrada vowed that his family would not relent in exposing the ?truth? behind Lacson?s attack on his father.

He said the Estradas were ?not afraid of someone who is an expert in silencing his enemies,? and that they were ?ready to expose the truth about [Lacson?s] real personality.?

?The truth will set us free,? he added.

Yuchengco shares

In his own privilege speech, Lacson underscored the need for the ?straight and proper to prevail.?

He said the ousted President, who is planning to take a second stab at the presidency in 2010, had pressured businessman Alfonso Yuchengco into selling his stake in Philippine Long Distance Co. (PLDT) to the group of Manuel V. Pangilinan.

He claimed that the elder Estrada bullied Yuchengco into selling his PLDT shares in August 1998 to Pangilinan?s group, the Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co., which eventually gained control of the telecommunications firm.

He said the transaction showed the ousted President?s ?other sinister behavioral patterns? that ?must be told to the Filipino people.?

But Senator Estrada denied this and pointed out that Pangilinan issued a denial on the same day.

?The legal counsel of Mr. Pangilinan denied [on Monday] that pressure was [brought] upon Mr. Yuchengco to sell,? the senator said, adding that Yuchengco?s pronouncement confirming the pressure and the sale was one of Lacson?s ?fishwife tales.?

Peace bonds

Estrada said Yuchengco was hardly a credible person to corroborate Lacson?s ?lies.?

?How can we trust the word of someone who is one of the first beneficiaries of [President Macapagal-Arroyo) when [Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.] floated the infamous peace bonds?? he said, adding that the Filipino people ?will soon pay the price as these bonds mature.?

The senator was referring to the Bureau of Treasury-issued Poverty Eradication and Alleviation Certificates bonds bought at P10.169 billion by CODE-NGO, an umbrella alliance of 2,500 nongovernment organizations, people?s organizations and cooperatives.

The government issued the bonds in an auction in October 2001 through an underwriting agreement with RCBC Capital Corp. owned by the Yuchengco family.

They are dubbed ?zeros,? or bonds that pay no interest periodically and are issued at a high discount of face value, and have a 10-year maturity.

?How can we trust the word of someone like Mr. Yuchengco who has betrayed the trust of thousands of Pacific Plan holders?? Estrada also said.

The bankrupt Pacific Plan was a member of the Yuchengco Group that provided open-ended educational plans to plan holders nationwide.

It declared liquidity problems in 2005 and is now facing syndicated estafa (fraud) charges.

Why only now?

Estrada asked why it took eight years for Lacson to issue the allegations against his father: ?Why is Senator Lacson talking only now, when next year?s elections are fast approaching? In all these, we ask, what are his motives? Is he now on the way to show his real color as an administration man masquerading as part of the opposition??

He blamed Lacson for being ?instrumental? in the defeat of the opposition presidential candidate by ?dividing the opposition? in 2004, ?even if he knew very well that he will steal the votes from the front-runner, my godfather, Fernando Poe Jr.?

He said this allowed the Arroyo administration to stay in power.

?Today, it is Mr. Lacson?s true nature that is being unmasked, we see the character of a man who, without any qualms or any sense of decency, would smear the very person who helped him not only in his professional career, but in his own political ambitions,? Estrada said.

He said Lacson?s attack of the former President was ?the act and behavior of a man who now presents himself as a man of principle.?

?Or was this a cowardly and opportunistic act?? he said.

Estrada also asked whether Lacson?s other motive?aside from a purported diversionary tactic regarding the Dacer-Corbito case?was to prop up the candidacy of another presidential aspirant by demolishing the ousted President.

Lacson has expressed preference for Sen. Benigno Aquino III of the Liberal Party, although rumors are rife that he wants to team up with Sen. Francis Escudero, a potential standard-bearer of the Nationalist People?s Coalition.

?I know him?

Meanwhile, active and past officials rushed to defend the former President.

Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said that as a military general serving in Mindanao and later as Armed Forces chief of staff during the Estrada administration, he did not receive a single irregular or illegal order from the then President.

Lacson had said that as PNP chief, he confided to Reyes his unease over the gravity of the jueteng problem.

?I know President Estrada. I served under him,? Reyes said. ?He had not asked me for anything that was in violation of the law. So we have respect for each other, and I am proud to say that there is nothing I can say that could tarnish [his] reputation.?

?Jueteng was not my field; it was a problem of the PNP. My responsibility was to go after the Abu Sayyaf and to deal with the [Moro Islamic Liberation Front] issue,? Reyes said.

He added: ?Let me reiterate that I have the highest respect for both Senator Lacson and former President Estrada.?

No micro manager

In a statement, 10 Estrada Cabinet members led by ex-Labor Secretary Benny Laguesma said the man delegated tasks to heads of departments and agencies and did not directly talk to those who would do the job.

?The Cabinet is one in observing and attesting that President Estrada was not a micro manager. All of us from his Cabinet experienced his management style, which was that he would allow us to perform our tasks but he would hold us responsible and accountable for our sphere of responsibilities, making sure only that we were achieving our department goals in line with or on the basis of public service,? the statement read in part.

It was issued in reaction to Lacson?s claim that Estrada abused his position as President to intimidate and neutralize his enemies, and to give orders behind Lacson?s back to protect and encourage jueteng operations.

Former Finance Secretary Jose Pardo said Estrada was loath to interfere in the affairs of departments.

Lenny de Jesus, a former chief of the Presidential Management Staff, said Estrada respected the chain of command and coursed his orders through proper channels.

The other Estrada Cabinet officials who signed the statement were: Ben Diokno (budget), Horacio Morales (agrarian reform), Alberto Romualdez (health), Ricardo Puno (press), Jun Rivera (transportation), Gregorio Vigilar (public works) and Artemio Tuquero (justice).

Old wound

Secretary Raul Gonzalez, Ms Arroyo?s chief legal counsel, said Lacson?s speech on the ousted President served the public because it unmasked the latter?s true character.

Until Monday, when Lacson exposed Estrada?s alleged hand in irregularities during his administration, the public had forgotten his ?shenanigans,? Gonzalez said.

?This is like scratching an old wound that is half-healed,? Gonzalez told the Inquirer by phone.

But Gonzalez, who as justice secretary had crossed swords with Lacson on a number of issues, said he was also surprised why the senator came out with his exposé: ?Why do this at this time??

Gonzalez theorized that Lacson spilled the beans on his former benefactor to stop the latter?s planned presidential run or defuse media attention on the senator?s supposed involvement in the Dacer-Corbito murders.

?Assuming it?s his intention to stop an Erap presidency, that will be a patriotic motive,? Gonzalez said.

But certain members of the Partido ng Masang Pilipino and the United Opposition only had harsh words for Lacson in a press briefing they held in Malabon City.

?Lacson doesn?t amount to anything. He used this party for his own interest. He?s a traitor,? Roberto Calinisan, one of the PMP directors and a retired police official, said in Filipino.

?We are just as bewildered by what he did. We can?t explain his real motive,? Calinisan said. With reports from Amy R. Remo, TJ Burgonio, Beverly T. Natividad and Kristine L. Alave