STAR columnist denies involvement in supposed plot to arrest Ping

"What will this frantic presidential wannabe think of next?"

This was the reaction of STAR columnist Jarius Bondoc as he denied yesterday being part of a supposed Palace plan to arrest opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson for his alleged role in the Kuratong Baleleng rubout case.

"Ping Lacson must be desperate for media mileage. To boost his sagging poll ratings, he now has his mouthpiece Lito Banayo claiming that I, along with certain columnists, am part of a Malacañang plan to arrest him for the Kuratong Baleleng case," Bondoc said.

Bondoc said he never heard of such a plan until newspapers quoted Banayo saying in a television interview that the Palace formed a task force, headed by presidential chief of staff Rigoberto Tiglao, to effect Lacson’s arrest.

"But if, as Banayo deadpans, there is such an arresting task group and it would include — of all people — writers, then I now gladly volunteer," Bondoc said. "I might even bring along my secret weapon, a trusty old pen which is mightier than any drug lord’s sword," he said.

Bondoc also accused Lacson of harassing his family.

"First, Lacson sends my family death threats and puts us under surveillance. Then, he maligns my wife with malicious insinuations while hiding under the skirt of parliamentary immunity. Now, while I am recovering from minor surgery, he depicts me as one who would play cop against robbers," Bondoc said in a statement.

"I urge the martial law enforcer-turned senator to stop pointing at others and start answering the grave indictment: his 1995 summary execution of nine suspected robbers and two minors, not to mention a woman, and his theft of their $2-million and P25-million loot," he added.

Lacson is one of the principal accused in the summary execution of eight alleged Kuratong Baleleng gang members and three other persons on May 18, 1995 in Quezon City.

The Kuratong Baleleng gang was a criminal group supposedly under the protection of certain police officials who felt it was time to "disengage" from the gang some time in 1995.

The multiple murder case was first filed in a Quezon City court in 1995 on the testimony of three policemen who were involved in the operation but the witnesses lost interest in testifying after former President Joseph Estrada won the 1998 presidential election.

After Estrada was ousted in January last year, however, prosecutors persuaded the Quezon City court to reopen the case but it was overruled by the Court of Appeals.

With two new witnesses, government lawyers then asked the Supreme Court to reverse the CA ruling and the high court on April 1 ordered the Quezon City court to proceed with the trial of the case.

None of the accused have been arraigned for the crime but murder is ordinarily a non-bailable crime.

The two new witnesses, Senior Inspector Abelardo Ramos and Inspector Ysmael Yu, claimed in May last year that Lacson hatched an operation along with several other police officials to arrest the gang members in their hideout in Parañaque City.

Lacson was then a senior superintendent in charge of Task Force Habagat of the defunct Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC) chaired by then Vice President Estrada.

Former President Fidel Ramos created the PACC shortly after he assumed office as president in 1992 and appointed then Vice President Estrada as chairman.

Estrada named Lacson head of the PACC’s Task Force Habagat. As president, Estrada would later name Lacson director general of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Prosecutors said the testimonies of Ramos and Yu are stronger than the testimonies of other witnesses because they admitted their direct participation in the alleged Kuratong Baleleng rubout.