Senate President Pro-Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, son of former President Joseph Estrada, gave as good as his father got from Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s privilege speech where he branded the older Estrada as a crook and a bully as he unmasked Lacson’s "true nature."

The younger Estrada, in lashing back at their former political ally who has since turned critic of his father, branded the allegations leveled against his father by Lacson as all lies, if not "a combination of gutter talk, hearsay and fishwives tale."

It is apparent, he said, that Lacson is using the Senate to divert attention away from Lacson’s involvement in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case, to his father, with the forthcoming non-bailable charge to be filed against him anytime soon.

"And to top it all, he is using his parliamentary privileges so that he

can lie without being held to account to anyone," Estrada said.

Amid claims of Lacson’s falling out" with former President Joseph Estrada since mid-2000, Lacson sought an audience with the then incarcerated leader, at least three times to seek his "endorsement."

"All I can say is please, do not include God in your lies. Do not criticize when your hands are bloodied," Senator Jinggoy added, in reference to Lacson saying, God spare us from Joseph Estrada.

Senator Estrada insinuated Lacson’s involvement in criminal activities while he was still in active in law enforcement, citing the issue of the celebrated Kuratong Baleleng case that continues to hound the Lacson to this day.

It was Estrada’s turn to speak on a matter of privilege, saying that he does so in defense of his father’s honor over "this vicious and savage assault made by a person whom President Estrada trusted and supported without reservations.

"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. And if Mr. Lacson was indeed so repulsed by President Estrada’s policies and behavior when he was president, why did he not resign right there and then?

"If Mr. Lacson was then being bypassed by dealing directly with Mr. Lacson’s subordinates...why did he not take the honorable and logical course of action, which is to resign? Was this the act and behavior of a man who now presents himself as a man of principle? Or was this a cowardly and opportunistic act? Where was that call of conscience that Mr. Lacson so proudly proclaims and pontificates today?", he asked.

He stressed that by Lacson’s own admission, he was "plucked from the obscurity of his position as provincial director in Laguna," before he became prominent figure for being at the forefront of the defunct Presidential Anti-Crime Organized Crime Task Force (Paoctf), adding that it was Lacson’s mistah and now nemesis, police Gen. Reynaldo Berroya who introduced him to his father, but it did not take long for Lacson to betray Berroya.

"If there were indeed second thoughts over his appointment then, it was because Mr. Lacson was embroiled in the Kuratong-Baleleng controversy rub-out," he pointed out.

The young Estrada asked about the motives of Lacson in bringing all these up. "Is he now on the way to show his real color as an administration man masquerading as part of the opposition? Was he not instrumental in dividing the opposition in the presidential elections of 2004 even if he knew very well that he will steal the votes from the front-runner, my godfather, Fernando Poe Jr.? As a result, this administration was allowed to continue in power," he said.

As to the Dacer-Corbito case, Estrada claimed that sometime in December last year, lawyer Bernard Vitriolo, one of the lawyers of former police Senior Supt. Cezar Mancao sought an audience with him and requested financial assistance for his client because Lacson had abandoned them.

"I asked then: why do you come to me? Why not to Lacson? The answer, Estrada said, was that Lacson had left them to fend for themselves and abandoned them.

"This is the true character of Mr. Lacson. After he exploits a person, he leaves him dry and hanging after he gets what he wants. That is the true nature of Mr. Lacson."

Estrada brought up the issue of Lacson, paying his father a visit on several occasions, merely to seek support when he was already running for public office.

"Has Mr. Lacson also forgotten so easily that it was President Estrada’s endorsement he sought when he ran for office as senator in 2001 and again in 2007? Has Mr. Lacson forgotten that he even sought his audience in my grandmother’s house in 2001 to seek his support when President Estrada was allowed to visit that Christmas?"

He recounted that there was also the visit of Lacson, together with the older brother of Rep. Ronnie Zamora, Manny Zamora , visited his father in 2003 and he asked for his support for his planned candidacy for president in the presidential elections of 2004. I know this for a fact because I was there and I witnessed and heard the conversation between them," he said, bringing up yet another Lacson visit seeking Estrada’s support.

"If President Estrada is the devious criminal that Mr. Lacson would now portray him to be, why did Mr. Lacson go to great lengths to seek his endorsement, not once, not twice, but three times in the elections of 2001, 2004 and 2007?" he asked.

The senator also debunked the issue on businessman Alfonso Yunchengco who was allegedly harassed and pressured by his father to selling his shares in the Philippine Telecommunications Investment Corporation to Metro Pacific as represented by Manuel Pangilinan, saying this was denied by the lawyer of Pangilinan.

"How can we trust the word of someone who was one of the first beneficiaries of GMA (President Arroyo) when RCBC (Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) floated the infamous PEACe bonds? Our people will soon pay the price as these bonds mature. How can we trust the word of someone like Yuchengco who has betrayed the trust of thousands of Pacific Plan holders?" he pointed out.

Estrada did not deny the fact that his father attempted to introduce the legalization of the illegal numbers game, even narrating that it was the subject of the former leader’s maiden privilege speech when he was elected senator in 1987 was his call to legalize jueteng.

Such would not suffice to picture his father as a jueteng protector and smuggler as the former leader, when he assumed the presidency, boasted of having "honorable" professionals as members of his Cabinet.

"These are men of honor and integrity who can guide and advise him. These are people who are professionals who would have rejected any corrupt or illegal acts that (Estrada) may be engaged in. and these are people who have never been involved in any corrupt acts," the younger Estrada said he as practically paraded in the plenary hall the likes of former Secretaries Vicente Pardo (finance), Benjamin Diokno (budget), Alberto Romualdez (health), Bienvenido Laguesma (labor) before his colleagues.

In ending his speech, Estrada countered Lacson’s warning, issuing the same and addressed to so-called presidentiables, "beware of those persons with wicked predispositions, be wary of those who come to you and profess uncompromising allegiance and unwavering loyalty. They may last only while convenient and compatible with their own selfish interests and self-serving agenda. Learn the lessons from President Estrada. I always thought that lying has been the hallmark and trademark of the present administration. It is however contagious and sadly, it has also now reach the walls of this chamber," he said.

Lacson rose to interpellate Estrada, but Estrada rejected it, saying whatever Lacson wants to say, he can say in a privilege speech.

He denied some of the allegations of Estrada, but was clearly again omitting vital portions of what he claims to be the "confirmation of his accusations" against Estrada.

He claimed Yuchengo confirmed his statement that they were coerced to sell their share, but omitted that there was no mention in the statement that Estrada had coerced the Yuchengcos, and said nothing either about the PLDT denial.

Claiming that on the charge of the rice shipment mentioned in his privilege speech, which Jinggoy denied, he claimed to have had a message from Supt. Glenn Dumlao from another party that he confirmed that the rice shipment was apprehended by himself, by Supt. Dumlao along with some of our men in Paoctf. He also confirmed he received instructions through another subordinate officer of Paoctf to release the shipment and the order came from Estrada.

It was obviously hearsay.

He denied being an administration ally, saying "I have always fought the excesses of this administration. And for the gentleman from San Juan to aver I am already with this administration, that is a fact farthest from the truth. That will never happen not even in my wildest imagination."