Date: April 2003

Rubout Case Hounds Lacson's Presidential Bid

For declaring his presidential ambition too early, Senator Panfilo Lacson, a former police chief who had loyally served deposed President Joseph Estrada, now has to contend with an ugly ghost from his law enforcement career.

Lacson plans to lead a coalition of opposition parties as its standard-bearer in the May 2004 national elections. Two weeks ago, he proclaimed his plan to run for the highest post, causing anxiety among political and business allies of the Arroyo administration.

On April 1, the Supreme Court revived a case that implicates Lacson and 31 other police officials in the deliberate execution of 11 members of a criminal gang in Quezon City on May 17, 1995. Lacson was then the commander of Task Force Habagat, the armed component of the now defunct Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC), which former Vice President Joseph Estrada headed.

When Estrada won the presidency in 1998, he appointed Lacson as the head of PACC. Estrada later picked Lacson over a list of more senior police officials to become the chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Lacson lost his job as PNP chief when a military-backed people's revolt ousted Estrada from Malacanang Palace and put Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in his stead in January 2001. In May of the same year, Lacson won a seat in the 24-man Philippine Senate, but not after being portrayed by his critics as the head of an international ring of criminal syndicates involved in illegal drug trade, illegal gambling, kidnapping and robbery.

The senator was primarily accused of ordering the execution of the arrested members of the Kuratong Baleleng gang in 1995 allegedly to cover up his involvement in the operations of the criminal syndicate. Despite the weight of the charge and other accusations against him, Lacson remains to be tried in court.

The Department of Justice (DOJ), however, is now trying to pin down Lacson. It has recently formed a prosecution panel that will handle the Kuratong Baleleng rubout case and now demands the immediate arrest of Lacson and his co-accused to formally start the trial. If convicted, Lacson could face the death penalty.

Lacson said the revival of the case is apparently a political move of the administration party to undermine his chances in the 2004 presidential election. He said this would only make him pursue his presidential ambition all the more.

The case against Lacson is considered significant, because it shows how politics and criminal justice system work together for a purpose in this country. While it has the markings of the impeachment trial against former President Estrada in 2000, the criminal case against Lacson is apparently more serious.

Not even Iraq's Saddam Hussein has been implicated in so many crimes as have been raised against Lacson. Not everybody is convinced of Lacson's complicity however. Somehow, people may find exaggerated the gravity of the accusations hurled against him and the Arroyo administration is running the risk of being tagged as a rumormonger.

In fact, incidents of kidnapping went down significantly during Lacson's term in the PNP and have climbed to a new high under the Arroyo administration. Problems of illegal gambling, kidnapping, and illegal drug trade remain unresolved to this day. Apparently, not any one person is behind all the criminal activities in the country as some would like to believe.

Political analysts believe that the case against Lacson must be resolved once and for all. Whether Lacson is guilty or not guilty of the charge would mean a lot in the 2004 election. If he is found guilty, the Filipino people would then be saved from another tyrannical president. If he is not, then it would prove that the Arroyo administration was playing dirty politics.

Amidst all the publicities about Lacson, the presidential aspirant is becoming more popular. Analysts believe that Lacson won a seat in the Senate in 2001 mainly because of the huge volume of news stories aired and written about him. Lacson must be thinking that the same free publicity, however bad they may sound, would help him reach the presidency. There is no such thing as bad press.

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