Senate custody of Lacson possible

Ping’s ‘asylum’ an option

By Michaela P. del Callar

02/09/2010

Lawyers for the senator on the run, Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, in a TV interview yesterday, brought up the idea of the senator seeking political asylum in a foreign country to avoid being extradited to the Philippines to face double murder charges.

Lawyer Alex Poblador, in the same interview said one of Lacson’s options is to seek political asylum, should the Arroyo government continue with its pressure on Lacson, for him to surrender to authorities, saying that “political persecution would be a ground for applying for political asylum.”

But Sen. Rodolfo Biazon yesterday suggested a Senate custody option for Lacson, wanted by authorities for his alleged involvement in the killing of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.

Biazon said the Senate “could not be used as a sanctuary” by any of its members if the offenses being charged against them are non-bailable.

But he also noted that “if the processes would allow something like a house arrest within the vicinity of the Senate,” Biazon said “the Senate leadership will be willing to extend that to Lacson.”

At the same time, Biazon urged Lacson to come out of hiding and confront the charges filed against him.

“I think that, as part of institutions and institutional processes, it would be best for Senator Lacson to come in and submit himself to the institutional processes,” Biazon said.

He said Lacson has “certain information” about the murder case that is not available to everyone.

“I would like to believe that his continued absence in public circulation is due to his assessment that he is not going to get a fair deal from this administration, considering that this administration had shown vindictivenes and sometimes even makes short cuts in institutions against the people that the administration perceives to be against them,” Biazon said.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, meanwhile, said Lacson’s role as a senator will continue even if he is arrested and confined.

Enrile said Lacson will still have the allocation from the budget of the Senate, but the work that he is performing will have to be assigned to some other senator.

“He is entitled to that until he is pronounced innocent or guilty by the courts,” Enrile said.

Lacson, who fled the country Jan. 5, is, according to reports quoting the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) reportedly hiding in Hong Kong to evade arrest.

The NBI also claimed that Lacson has slipped back into the country, under so many disguises or is hiding somewhere in Asia.

“Senator Lacson should surrender and face the murder charges if he really believes he is innocent and not hide.”

This was the advice made by NBI Director Nestor Mantaring during an interview with reporters who said that coordination with the foreign counterparts makes it possible to follow the trail of the senator facing double murder charges.

Mantaring, by way of an offer to Lacson, said the NBI is open for communications with Lacson’s lawyer in a bid to convince him to surrender and face the charges against him.

“We have a two-way process in our justice system. The senator would be afforded with the same rights as any accused facing a criminal case,” said Mantaring.

“If he is indeed innocent of the charges, he can clear his name by submitting himself to authorities and defend himself,” the official added.

Meanwhile, the NBI had made representations with the Hong Kong Immigration to give the bureau information that would be vital in tracing Lacson.

Mantaring said he also respects the opinion of Sen. Gregorio Honasan who allegedly claimed that Lacson should hide.

“It is Senator Honasan’s opinion and everybody is entitled to his personal opinion,” he said.

Earlier, another Lacson lawyer, Alex Avisado, reiterated that his client is not in hiding and the government in fact knows he is in Hong Kong and he just wants to make it appear that he is in hiding.

Avisado said they would exhaust all legal remedies available for Lacson. “The lawyers have the duty to protect their client and it is up to them how they go over to their defense and it is their rights to exhaust legal remedies,” he said.

Mantaring said efforts of the bureau in searching Lacson continue and that the NBI has even tapped the help of its foreign counterparts abroad to find him.

“We have already made our representation with the Hong Kong Immigration to give us information as to his entry and exit in the event that he exits Hong Kong. We are now in the process of documentation to comply with the requirements in our request to the Interpol to include the senator in the Red Notice and it will be soon,” he said.

Mantaring said Lacson will be placed in the Red Notice anytime now. “The Interpol has 186 member-countries and the intelligence network of the 186 countries will help in following the trail of the senator. Apart from this, we have also started coordinating with our foreign counterparts to help us. We also coordinate with the police attaches of the countries which are not members of the Interpol,” he said.

Meanwhile, Enrile said the government evidence is too weak to pin down Lacson in the double murder case, which is the subject of the warrant arrest issued by a judge in Manila RTC.

“ I have a good defense for Senator Lacson and as a lawyer the government has a weak case, and not enough to pin him down,” Enrile said.

This was the statement made by Enrile during the weekly Neal Cruz Kapihan sa Manila Hotel forum, where Enrile even offered his services as lawyer to the beleaguered Lacson who admitted that he is now hiding abroad in his belief that Malacañang and the Justice department have influence the court to issue the warrant of arrest to a murder case a criminal offense against Lacson with no bail recommended over the double murder case.

Enrile said that Lacson is a member of the Senate and still enjoys his position including his chairmanship in his committee but advised Lacson to surface and clear his name and be arraigned to get back to his normal life.

Ferdinand Topacio, counsel of former police officer Cesar Mancao, who has testified against Lacson, pointing to him as the brains behind the Dacer kidnapping and murder, lashed out at the Lacosn lawyers for their statement that the issuance of a warrant of arrest against their client by a Manila judge.

“The latest statements of the lawyers of Senator Panfilo Lacson that the issuance of a warrant of arrest against the Senator for his involvement in the Dacer-Corbito double murder was attended by political pressure and influence, and was allegedly done in order to improve the chances of Judge Myra Fernandez for a post in the Court of Appeals, is exceedingly malicious, unlawyerly, unethical and betrays the fact that the camp of Senator Lacson has run out of options in their defense of the indefensible.

He pointed out that Avisado himself said, for the record and in open court during one of the hearings in the Dacer-Corbito case, that he congratulates Judge Fernandez for the award which he said is deserving. “For him to now backtrack on his word just because Judge Fernandez did not see things his way, is ungentlemanly and dishonorable.”

In a separate interview, Lacson’s adviser, Lito Banayo, said the senator’s decision to go into hiding was a direct result of the “injustice and humiliation” being heaped upon him.

Malacañang, for its part, sees the desperate attempt on the part of Lacson’s defense counsel to reverse the court’s issuance of the warrant of arrest against his client by putting color to the judge’s career path in her application for the Court of Appeals (CA) justice position.

Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Gary Olivar, in a chance interview yesterday, said the statements from Avisado, were nothing but pure speculations with no substantial evidence provided and were only meant to spite the integrity and reputation of the judge concerned.

“What this kind of speculation reflects is a slur without any supporting evidence against the integrity and reputation of the judge concerned There is no connection and it has nothing to do with a pending case before another court in which the Department of Justice has to be involved as a prosecutorial arm of government on one end and whatever (has been occurring) between the justice and her superiors in the court system as far as she has been considered for appointment to a higher position,” Olivar said.

“I say it is a baseless speculation and whether or not it is intended to reflect badly against the judge involved, as usual, this is something that the Palace would rather not interfere,” Olivar said.

Olivar said the Palace is leaving the matter for the court and the justice system to evaluate and decide upon as they have already manifested on previous occasion that the executive branch no longer has a say insofar as all the issues in this case are concerned.

Olivar reiterated as well that the government has no intention of singling Lacson out contrary to what was reported that most of the authorities, the NBI and the Philippine National Police (PNP) in particular, have already diverted their attention from other important cases in order to hunt the senator down. With Pat C. Santos and Aytch S. dela Cruz

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