Punchline
The tale of the “fugitive”
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
WHAT’S going to happen to Senator Ping Lacson?
After surviving the series of desperate attempts in the past to malign his person picturing him as a druglord, kidnapper, murderer, dollar hoarder who allegedly owned several mansions in the US and had amassed millions in illegal wealth all rolled into one, a court finally declares him a fugitive. (I had written about the lies about Mr. Lacson (http://pinglacson.net/tbl/the-truth-behind-the-lies) extensively in the past having had the chance to work with him closely in 2004-2005).
Nothing could have made the hearts of former President GMA and former FG Mike Arroyo gladder than this development. When all else failed to put away Mr. Lacson for good with all his advocacy to fight corruption, the attempt to pin him down for the double murder of publicist Bubby Dacer and his driver finally succeeded to get a court issue a warrant for his arrest. Little did the couple realize that snaring and luring former police Sr. Supt. Cezar Mancao II into Malacanang’s lair would do the trick for them this time. But I surmise it would not be long before the truth vindicates him again.
Recall how a host of characters like Mary “Rosebud” Ong, former Col. Victor Corpus, Angelo “Ador” Mawanay, Blanquita Pelaez,, Kit Mateo, and former Supt. Reynaldo Berroya were recruited to frame Mr. Lacson from 1995 till 2004 and failed. (Rosebud, Mawanay and Pelaez later admitted being paid by Mr. Arroyo to paint Mr. Lacson as a drug lord and owner of several bank accounts and houses, while jailed Mateo admitted before he died that he allowed himself to be used by concocting tales about murders committed by Mr. Lacson after being promised freedom by Mr. Berroya who was also in jail at the time. Mr. Corpus was reinstated in the AFP with a special assignment but thereafter stopped peddling his own lies).
So who is Mr. Mancao, the new recruit? How much does he really know about the Dacer-Corbito murder case? Will his “confession” stick?
* * * * *
Mr. Mancao was not involved in the planning of the killing of Mr. Dacer and his driver so he could not possibly know about the alleged involvement of Senator Lacson. This ironically was confirmed by other prime suspects, former Sr. Supt. Michael Ray Aquino and former Supt. Glenn Dumlao whom Mr. Mancao identified as among those who were supposed to be in the know. Even the car driver whom Mr. Mancao identified to have heard the discussion of the plot denied the meeting inside the car as alleged ever took place. So what was Mr. Mancao’s business implicating his former boss?
Mr. Mancao and Mr. Aquino fled to the US after they were named suspects in the Dacer-Corbito case. It was in 2004 when Mr. Mancao called then already Senator Lacson to inform the latter that he was being pressured by then Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Romeo Prestoza (who later became chief of the Presidential Security Group of the past Arroyo administration) to implicate him (Lacson) in exchange for reinstatement in the police force with a promotion to boot. Mr. Mancao assured Sen. Lacson he would never make the lie. (Mr. Lacson kept that text message).
But when the FBI finally caught up with him and detained him, Mr. Mancao suddenly surfaced to identify Sen. Lacson as the mastermind. Shortly thereafter, he and his family were allowed to return to the Philippines under the custody of the NBI. And who facilitated the “confession” and his comfortable return to the Philippines? Prosecutors of the Department of Justice of the Arroyo government, no less.
Preliminary hearings were quickly conducted and the case was eventually remanded by the DOJ to the court before the 2010 campaign started for jurisdiction to ensure that a presidential fiat by the next president ordering a re-investigation would not be possible. The warrant of arrest was issued, taking into account only the statement of Mr. Mancao, disregarding the affidavits of Senator Lacson, Mr. Dumlao and Mr. Aquino disputing Mr. Mancao’s claims – the only basis for implicating Sen. Lacson.
And as the Arroyo administration predicted, the scenario is now being played out as scripted. P-Noy now concedes he cannot touch the case because the court has acquired jurisdiction.
Curiously, the family of Mr. Dacer recently filed a case in the US this time including former President Joseph Estrada as a respondent. Is it possible that the family knows more than what is being pursued by the DOJ today (as crafted by Arroyos’ prosecutors)?
Now that Mr. Mancao finally admitted that his knowledge of the crime was based on events after the crime was committed contrary to his earlier claim that he heard then PNP chief Lacson order Michael Ray Aquino to kill Mr. Dacer inside a car, it’s only fair to expect DOJ Sec. Lilia de Lima to finally order a reinvestigation. By refusing to do it, she will be the unwitting accomplice of the Arroyo administration in the sinister plot to put away Senator Lacson without just cause.
* * * * *
What drove Senator Lacson to go into hiding to avoid arrest?
I recall having asked him the same question when he went into hiding in 2004 after then DOJ Sec. Raul Gonzales succeeded in getting the Kuratong Baleleng case revived despite a ruling from the regional trial court and the Supreme Court dismissing the case against him. (He surfaced when the regional court again dismissed the case after a brief review of the new charge).
He said: “I will not survive another day soon as I am held in custody because there are those in power who desperately want me killed.” He said he knew perfectly well what his enemies, those whom he had exposed for corruption, were capable of. I thought it was an ironic response from someone who has been pictured as a ruthless murderer. A true blue cold-blooded killer would just fight back in the best and only way he knows – to eliminate the people who did him wrong.
But why, indeed, are Rosebud, Berroya et al, those who deeply hurt and maligned him, still alive and well today?
That leads me to more questions today: Why would Mr. Lacson want Mr. Dacer killed when the latter never did him wrong? Mr. Dacer, a gentleman, never called him names and never accused him of wrongdoing.
Finally, why is Mr. Mancao not afraid to implicate Senator Lacson, a supposed ruthless murderer and the worst enemy of anyone crosses his path? It’s because he knows his former boss too well as someone who is not what he accuses him to be and that he can get away with it unscathed and still claim rewards for lying.
Elementary, Mr. Watson. Senator Ping Lacson simply is not your fugitive murderer, just a fugitive for his own life. The no-bail crime imputed to him puts him in the perfect place where his enemies want him.
I have no doubt that a reinvestigation by the Aquino government and by a new batch of prosecutors would find him free of any culpability as courts in the past had done.
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