Lacson to accusers: Present evidence

Embattled Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson finally faced off with his accusers at the Senate yesterday and demanded evidence to substantiate charges that he was involved in illegal activities during his stint as national police chief.

But the showdown between Lacson and his chief accuser, Col. Victor Corpus of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Phi-lippines (ISAFP), was less explosive than anticipated, with the chamber deferring its probe on Lacson’s alleged money laundering.

During the continuation of the hearing, Lacson and Corpus exchanged all too familiar challenges and explanations on the senator’s alleged overseas bank accounts holding ill-gotten wealth.

Sen. Joker Arroyo, who chairs the chamber’s Blue Ribbon Committee, said hearings on the money laundering case could be deferred until Lacson’s accusers presented evidence of their charges.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) informed the Senate it would be able to secure this month vital documents from the United States confirming the existence of Lacson’s alleged bank accounts.

Lacson, former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), renewed his call for Corpus to back up his charges with solid evidence, reiterating that if his accuser could do so he would "walk straight to jail without the benefit of a court trial."

Aside from maintaining multimillion-dollar bank accounts in Hong Kong, Canada and the US, Lacson has been accused by former police asset Mary "Rosebud" Ong of amassing wealth from kidnap-for-ransom activities and drug trafficking.

Instead of accepting Lacson’s challenge, Corpus dared the senator to deny the existence of the bank accounts under oath, sign a waiver and special power of attorney for authority to open the said accounts, and take a polygraph test with him "to determine who is telling the truth."

After the hearing, Lacson said in an interview that he would not take the polygraph test since "it is the accuser who needs to be assessed."

He said he would take his oath at the proper forum to deny that he and his wife had millions in bank accounts.

The senator likewise explained that he could not grant Corpus a waiver at this time since it would be like "asking somebody to come into my house and ransack it."

During the hearing, Lacson cited a June 28 report of the PNP-AFP composite team that went to the US to look into the alleged Citibank accounts.

In the report, Lacson pointed out, Ong was considered "a witness without credibility" by US Customs officials after a debriefing revealed inconsistencies in her testimonies.

The senator pressed Corpus to explain why the former undercover agent was still being used as witness despite being considered less than credible.

The military intelligence chief responded by saying the copy of the report which the senator obtained was "unauthorized" and different from what the ISAFP had in its possession.

Corpus refused to confirm the veracity of the documents obtained by Lacson, and later rejected the senator’s request to hand over a copy of the ISAFP’s copy of the report.

"This will jeopardize our existing operations to trace your secret bank accounts, your Honor," the ISAFP chief said.

Lacson also reminded Corpus that Citibank officials have already denied the existence of the alleged bank accounts. He asked his accuser why the case was still being pursued despite the official statement from the bank.

In response, Corpus cited the case of Mexican President Raul Salinas, whose brother had been convicted of money laundering in Citibank. The ISAFP chief noted that the bank did not confirm the accounts maintained by the brother.

Corpus also justified the release of raw information on the accounts to the media, saying its release was "in the interest of national security."

The intelligence chief explained that he was afraid that huge amounts of money could be used to influence government officials and even media personalities in ensuring Lacson victory in presidential race in 2004.

Corpus said narco-politics is a serious threat to the country and so is the senator who is being accused of being "the drug lord of all drug lords."

Corpus presents more witnesses

Corpus presented several witnesses against Lacson yesterday, including one who stumbled upon a shabu shipment in Sariaya, Quezon which resulted in the arrest of six Chinese suspects last year.

S/Sgt. Juanito Pascual said that one of the suspects was a certain Raymond Tan, who claimed the drugs were owned by Lacson.

"Why are you messing with this shipment, don’t you know this belongs to Ping Lacson," Pascual quoted the suspect as saying.

The witness said he did not further question Pascual and that he did not report this to his superiors.

When asked by Lacson why he kept this information until now, Pascual replied: "I feared for my life and only had the courage to come out since you are no longer with the PAOCTF (Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force)."

Another witness, Rebecca Agana, claimed that while detained in Camp Crame following her arrest by the Narcotics Group in 1998, police officers asked her to sell 300 grams of shabu.

The witness was presented to back up claims by Ong that Camp Crame was the center of drug trafficking in 1998.

A final witness was presented to apparently confirm the links between Lacson an alleged drug lord Kim Wong.

Witness Senior Inspector. Florentino Bagallon testified that as chief of the Manila City Hall anti-crime unit during the term of Mayor Alfredo Lim, he inspected on Nov. 17, 1997 the Wong-owned Narcissus Club along Mabini street in Malate.

Bagallon said he was there to check on reports of the presence of undocumented female foreigners working as guest relations officers but ended up seizing a kilo of shabu.

He narrated that after the search, Wong called somebody on his cellular phone and asked: "Nasaan si Ping (Where is Ping)?"

Bagallon said the businessman then passed the phone to him and a person on the other line who introduced himself as "Colonel Razon" demanded that the operation against the club be stopped since Wong was an ally.

"A certain Felix Chong asked me to leave the shabu with them since he was a ‘mistah’ of Razon and that it was enough that I had talked with Sonny Razon," Bagallon said.

Pascual and Bagallon, however, could not categorically say whether the "Ping" or "Ping Lacson" they referred to was Senator Lacson.

Evidence from US ready this month

In a formal letter to the joint Senate panel, the DOJ asked that hearings on the Lacson controversy resume after a Sept. 7-24 recess, saying the US attorney general would have sent the documents on the bank accounts by that time.

Justice Secretary Hernando Perez had sought the assistance of the US Attorney General under the RP-US Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty in confirming the alleged Lacson accounts.

Sen. Robert Barbers, chairman of the committee on public order and illegal drugs, acceded to the request, saying his panel, the Blue Ribbon and the committee on national defense have agreed to suspend hearings during the recess.

Meanwhile, former Senate president Jovito Salonga said groups seeking the expulsion of Lacson are only wasting their time since no one can force a senator to step down.

"They do not have anything yet that can compel him to resign," he said. "You can’t compel him to do so just because a bunch of generals want him to resign."

In a related development, a political analyst said yesterday the numerous cases being filed against Lacson were part of the continuing struggle directed against remnants of the alleged criminal structure set up by ousted President Joseph Estrada.

Joel Rocamora, executive director of the Institute for Popular Democracy, said the claims by former police asset Mary "Rosebud" Ong that Camp Crame was the center of drug trafficking in 1998 was simply the tailend of last year’s impeachment trial revelations that Malacañang was the nerve center of jueteng operations in the country.

"This political upheaval is part of the process to dismantle the criminal structure," Rocamora said during the weekly Ciudad Fernandina Forum in Greenhills, San Juan.

He said Lacson, being the most prominent of those associated with Estrada, will be the one to take the brunt of the ongoing struggle to institute reforms in various sectors of government.

However, other stragglers from the past administration still in government service are also targets, said Rocamora, who is also president of the Akbayan party-list group.

He said various groups should take advantage of the political upheaval to push for long-delayed reforms and the cleansing of the country’s political structure.

Rocamora lamented that while the people power uprisings have ousted two presidents, the social ills of the past regimes still remain.

"If we were successful in ousting two presidents there is no reason why we cannot dismantle the remnants of their regimes," he said. – With reports from Perseus Echeminada, Sandy Araneta, Nestor Etolle