Lacson keeps friends’ names secret

MANILA, Philippines—Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson has taken a vow of omerta.

And Justice Secretary Leila de Lima will have to work doubly harder in identifying the people who coddled Lacson while he was on the run or who issued him a travel document that allowed him to travel from China to Cebu.

“I promised the people who helped me that I would take to my grave the secret about the help they had extended to me,” Lacson said in Filipino in a radio interview Tuesday.

Lacson reportedly used Travel Document No. 34258 in returning on Saturday, but Eduardo Malaya, spokesperson of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), said Tuesday there was no evidence that the paper had been issued by its offices in Hong Kong, Xiamen and Macau.

Malaya told reporters that Travel Document No. 34258 was certainly not in the inventory of the consulate in Macau, from where a source said at the weekend Lacson had proceeded to Beijing a year ago and took the luxury train service Orient Express to Europe.

On Aug. 21, the DFA canceled Lacson’s passport on a directive from De Lima based on court orders. Upon cancellation last month of his arrest warrant, Lacson would have been entitled to a passport under the law.

De Lima on Monday said that Lacson “owes it to the people to explain how he was able to transfer from one country to another.”

Lacson said the Department of Justice (DoJ) should instead quiz law enforcement agencies on his whereabouts the past year.

The Philippine National Police also has not run out of excuses. “All our tracker teams exerted their efforts to apprehend Senator Lacson, but he did not hide in the Philippines,” said PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz Jr. “Our coverage abroad is limited.”

Question of jurisdiction

“Shouldn’t the DoJ ask the law enforcement agencies tasked to look for me?” the senator said.

“They should render a report on where the person they’re looking for had been and should not ask the person himself about his whereabouts,” he added. “(The approach) doesn’t feel right.”

Lacson expressed doubt that local authorities could go after the people who had harbored him abroad, saying they are not under Philippine jurisdiction.

“If you’re a lawyer, aren’t you supposed to know that the Philippines has no jurisdiction to go after people in another country for harboring a criminal?”

Bringing case to public

Three days after returning to the country, the senator spent most of the day making the rounds of radio stations for interviews. He earlier promised to prove his innocence before the “bar of public opinion,” particularly the 15 million people who voted for him in 2007.

Lacson said he was willing to cooperate with authorities seeking to reinvestigate the murders of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in 2000. But he said he should not be “pressured” into doing so.

The senator said he has “information” about the mastermind of the murders. But he said he had no evidence that would make the information stand in court.

“If you have no evidence, like in my situation when I have only information, it’s better not to identify the mastermind yet based only on the information I’ve gathered,” he said.

No history of animosity

Lacson said he was “puzzled” about De Lima’s position that he identify his protectors and her previous statement that authorities should nail him down for the murders even after the Court of Appeals had quashed his arrest warrant.

“We had no history of animosity,” he said.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said Malacañang would not compel Lacson to reveal his travels although he had no valid passport. He said this was up to De Lima.

“We would respect the decision of Senator Lacson because that would involve people who helped him during his hiding, in his words, hiding from injustice,” Lacierda said.

Palace backs review

Lacierda also said that Malacañang supports a reinvestigation of Lacson’s involvement in the killings.

“We agreed that we have to look into the case again because this was filed during the Arroyo administration. We all know that he is a foe of the Arroyos so it was a case fraught with political bias.”

In a news conference, De Lima said Lacson has the “moral obligation” to identify “Bigote” who government witnesses Glen Dumlao and Cezar Mancao II said ordered the twin slayings.

She also acknowledged reports that “Bigote” may pertain to former President Joseph Estrada.

“When they were telling their stories, Dumlao and Mancao, they said that’s the common perception of the people,” she said.

“At that time, Sen. Ping Lacson was head of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force and these are his people,” she added.

That is why, she said, it was important for witnesses to “further elaborate.”

De Lima, however, said she was in no position to advise Estrada on what to do.

She also said the Supreme Court would have the final say on the arrest warrant against Lacson that the Court of Appeals had quashed. With reports from Norman Bordadora, Dona Z. Pazzibugan and Jerome Aning