NBI: Lacson faces perjury raps for not declaring $ account

Opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson, accused of concealing his US accounts from his 2001 statement of assets and liabilities, could be charged with perjury, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said yesterday.

"There appears to be evidence that he indeed violated the law," NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco told reporters. "We are in possession of some of assets and liabilities (reports) of the senator. And from our initial cursory, (the US accounts) are not reflected there."

Perjury is a charge against a person who submits a false statement to a court while under oath. The statement can be either oral or written. A Senate committee can be a court in some circumstances.

Lacson has repeatedly denied that he has any account in the United States. During a Senate hearing on Sept. 5, he maintained his denial.

In his last statement of assets and liabilities (SAL), Lacson reported his net worth to be only P19 million.

However, documents from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed that Lacson and his wife, Alice, have a $200,000 deposit in the United States. The FBI also said it believes the Lacsons have up to four more accounts.

The NBI said it has requested the documents from the FBI and US Attorney General John Ashcroft. The documents include bank records and checks.

The bank records include the two Bank of America checks Mrs. Lacson issued in December last year as payment to a Toyota car dealer in California, Wycoco said. The value of each check was $50,000. Prior to that, Lacson also wrote a check for almost $246,200, also using the Bank of America account.

These records, Wycoco said, could be used against Lacson should the police decide to pursue the perjury case.

A special panel of NBI agents, whom Wycoco called "bank experts," are evaluating the FBI report.

"This is to determine the extent of the deposits, withdrawals, and whether the accounts are still active, and to determine what kind of charges can be filed against (the senator)," Wycoco said.

However, it remains unclear if the police could pursue a money laundering case against Lacson based on these records. The Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Law (RA 9160), which took effect on Oct. 30, 2001, is not retroactive. To charge Lacson with money laundering, the police will also have to prove that he earned the money illegally.

"It all depends on the source of money," said Justice Secretary Hernando Perez. "There’s even a question whether the law was already in effect at that time. These factors will have to be considered. I am not even sure because we have to examine whether the account is indeed not covered by the SAL."

Lacson, of course, will get an opportunity to explain, Perez said.

Sources said the Department of Justice had obtained a copy of the FBI report on the Lacsons’ accounts sometime in November last year. It remains unclear why the department didn’t make the information public then.

The DOJ was forced to acknowledge the existence of the FBI report after it was leaked to a select group of reporters this week. A videotape of an FBI official, Kyle Latimer, confirming the $200,000 account, was shown to the reporters.

Reacting to the FBI confirmation, which made it to the front page of many newspapers yesterday, Lacson accused both Perez and Wycoco of lying. He said it was obvious that his antagonists had planted the FBI report story in the Philippine news media.

"Again, I am saying that I never denied that I once had accounts in the US, but that they (either) contained insignificant amounts or are closed," he said.

"I even volunteered the information during the interpellation of my privileged speech last year," Lacson said.

Wycoco said the police will submit its finding to three Senate committees: the Blue Ribbon, the public order and illegal drugs and the defense committees. However, the Public Order and Illegal Drugs committee is now chaired by Lacson following the Senate reorganization this week. The Blue Ribbon Committee is chaired by Sen. Joker Arroyo and the defense committee by Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr.

Sen. Robert Barbers, who still claims the chairmanship of the public order and illegal drugs committee, vowed to keep the investigation on Lacson alive. The "new majority" of the Senate, made up of mostly opposition politicians, has called for the recommitment of the Lacson report prepared by the senators on the administration side.

Barbers, Arroyo and Magsaysay all belittled the call, saying this is only meant to whitewash Lacson’s alleged crime of omission.