Lacson wants to kiss and make up with Estrada

MANILA, Philippines—Blessed are the peacemakers—even the controversial ones.

Senator Panfilo Lacson now wants to end his four-year estrangement from former president Joseph Estrada.

“Whenever I recall all the difficult things we went through together (marami kaming hirap na pinagdaanan), since (Estrada) was vice president in 1992, I realize it’s time I forget whatever animosities we have,” Lacson said in an interview on Tuesday.

Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, the former president’s son, was elated over Lacson’s change of heart and offered to host dinner for his colleague and his father to cement the reconciliation.

In 2008, Estrada was quoted as saying that any questions about the double murder of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito eight years back would be better addressed by Lacson who, he said, was aware of the so-called “Oplan: Delta.”

The plan was supposedly the neutralization of Dacer, a PR man who had reportedly earned the ire of both Estrada and Lacson. Corbito was driving his employer that day in November 2000 when they were seized in Makati City by armed men believed to be policemen. Their bodies were found in Cavite days later.

Lacson and Estrada were tagged in the killing but only Lacson was eventually charged and subsequently cleared in 2010. He has always denied any knowledge of or participation in the incident. Estrada later explained that a reporter had misquoted him during an interview.

“The media asked (Estrada) in Malabon at the time about the Dacer-Corbito case, and immediately he said I was the one to ask, insinuating that I had something to do with it,” Lacson said Tuesday in Filipino.

“But I really had no involvement and so I was irked (doon ako napikon) and I took the [Senate] floor on a matter of personal privilege to clear the air. I felt he could have denied (the insinuation). Why did he have to point at me? He knew I was at a low point in my life then (doon ako nagkamalas-malas),” the senator said.

The relationship between Estrada and Lacson goes back to the Ramos administration in the early 1990s.

Estrada as the chair then of the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission appointed Lacson to head “Task Force: Habagat” that went after kidnap and drug syndicates.

In 1993, Estrada and Lacson survived an ambush by suspected New People’s Army guerrillas under Commander Hector Mabilangan in Santo Tomas, Batangas, while they were out to retrieve the body of an internal revenue officer.

Estrada later famously supported Lacson when, as Habagat chief, he was accused of involvement in the alleged rubout of Kuratong Baleleng gang members in Quezon City in 1995.

Estrada also supported Lacson when he investigated another Estrada protégé, Colonel Reynaldo Berroya, for the kidnapping of Taiwanese national Jack Chou, for which Berroya was convicted.

The Supreme Court later reversed Berroya’s conviction citing a technicality.

In November 1998, Lacson’s appointment as director general of the Philippine National Police was a foregone conclusion due to his closeness to Estrada.

Their feud 10 years later was disturbing to many observers, especially after Lacson delivered a privilege speech on the Senate floor denouncing Estrada for linking him to the Dacer-Corbito case.

The hostility was so intense that Senator Estrada was forced to deliver a rebuttal in the Senate in behalf of his father the following day. Lacson said he and the former president had not talked since.

“I’ve been thinking, I want to make peace with him.  I realized that sooner or later, if we have the chance to talk, that would be fine,” Lacson said.

Senator Estrada, who remains on speaking terms with Lacson, offered to host a dinner and mediate between the two.

Lacson welcomed the offer, even suggesting that a date be set that would not conflict with the ongoing impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.