That’s who Sen. Panfilo Lacson thinks is responsible for the string of charges against him, mainly because he could be her strongest rival in the 2004 presidential elections.
Appearing before the "Strictly Politics" talk show over ABS-CBN News Channel on Tuesday, Lacson minced no words and accused President Arroyo of directing the attacks against him.
The senator claimed Mrs. Arroyo directed military intelligence chief Col. Victor Corpus to produce witnesses who would say that he amassed ill-gotten wealth from kidnapping, drug trafficking and other crimes.
But Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said the allegations against Lacson have nothing to do with politics.
"We never made any references to the 2004 election campaign. We believe the allegations of Colonel Corpus against Senator Lacson are not political persecution," Tiglao told The STAR yesterday.
"The main point of the Senate investigations is for the country to wage war against illegal drugs and massive money laundering," he added, refuting Lacson’s charge that the President was interfering in Senate matters.
Lacson said during his television appearance the President was interfering in Senate business by making public statements urging the chamber to proceed with the investigation.
"Why make statements like that which directly intrude into Senate affairs," he asked. "Why pick on me?"
Lacson said he could not understand why the Arroyo administration has to pick on him if they really believe that Mrs. Arroyo would be a "sure winner" in 2004.
He noted the President garnered more than 11 million votes, more than the votes cast for jailed former President Joseph Estrada, when she ran for vice president in 1998.
"I was just tenth in the overall Senate race with 10.5 million votes," he said, lamenting that the Arroyo administration was ganging up on him although he has not announced his political plans for 2004.
Meanwhile, the President approved proposals for the Department of Justice to seek a reconsideration of the Court of Appeals ruling disallowing the reopening of the May 1995 Kuratong Baleleng rubout case.
Tiglao announced the DOJ is expected to file by Monday a motion for reconsideration for the CA, seeking to reopen the charges that Lacson was responsible for the alleged summary execution of 11 Kuratong Baleleng robbery gang members.
Tiglao noted there were actually three cases for the planned re-opening of the Kuratong Baleleng case pending before three different divisions of the CA.
"Two of the branches of the Court of Appeals sided with the DOJ’s move upholding that the cases can still be filed," Tiglao said.
"(Justice) Secretary (Hernando) Perez is confident the decision would be overturned," he added.
In a related development, Ombudsman Aniano Desierto said he could not question the Senate on its decision to detain former police agent Angelo "Ador" Mawanay after he accused Senators Loren Legarda and Noli de Castro of wrongdoing.
"We cannot go after the Senate. It is an independent republic," Desierto said during the weekly Ciudad Fernandina forum in Greenhills, San Juan.
Mawanay had filed a complaint of arbitrary detention against eight senators before the Ombudsman last week after he spent a weekend under Senate detention.
But Desierto said he was still trying to determine if the detention order was an act of the entire Senate or of individual senators.
"If the arrest was ordered by an individual senator that is another story," Desierto said.
COPA secretary general Pastor "Boy" Saycon said in a statement "Filipinos were fast losing their faith in the country’s institutions because of their perception that narco-politics and narco-money had corrupted Congress and the judiciary."
Saycon said the threat of some senators to suspend the investigation was an indication they were out to protect Lacson "at all cost even if this meant slitting the throat of democracy."
The Senate owes it to the nation, Saycon said, to launch a full-dress investigation of the drug menace not to mention Colonel Corpus’ charges that Lacson is the biggest drug trafficker in the country.
"We the people want to know how far and how deep the tentacles of drugs have spread in the Philippines, for the future of our country is at stake and we do not want our children to live broken, irreparable lives because they have been stricken by drugs," he said. - With Aurea Calica, Perseus Echeminada