Aquino didn’t ask where Lacson hid

MANILA, Philippines—The President did not ask and the senator did not tell.

So the big mystery remains about where Sen. Panfilo Lacson holed up for more than a year after he fled the country in January 2010 to escape arrest for the Dacer-Corbito double murder.

“He did not ask. Maybe he did not want to know. So we did not discuss it,” Lacson told reporters at the inauguration of the seven-kilometer Cavite Expressway (Cavitex) in Kawit, Cavite, Wednesday which he and President Benigno Aquino III attended.

It was the third meeting between Mr. Aquino and the senator since the latter resurfaced late last month following the Court of Appeals dismissal of the charges implicating him in the 2000 murders of publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito.

Lacson said he would have given Mr. Aquino the lowdown on his life as a fugitive if the President had asked.

“That much I can (reveal) in confidence to a head of state,” he said.

The inauguration of the P5.8-billion expressway Wednesday was the first time that the President and the senator were seen together at a public event since Lacson emerged from hiding, and Mr. Aquino showed how pleased he was at seeing Lacson there.

“Honorable Sen. Lacson, I’m really glad to see you again,” the President said at the start of his speech.

Lacson made light of the effusive presidential greeting, saying Mr. Aquino probably greeted him that way so because they were former Senate colleagues.

He again denied that he was being considered for a position in the Aquino administration, saying the President did not make him any offer and that it was not his style to apply for a position.

He also said that talk that he would replace Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo was probably being spread maliciously by people who either hate him or Robredo.

“I think he’s doing a fine job and he should stay there. Why fix something that is not broken?” Lacson said of Robredo.