‘I’m the good guy fighting criminals’

In an attempt to repair his tarnished image following the Supreme Court ruling to reopen the 1995 Kuratong Baleleng multiple murder case, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said yesterday he is actually the "good guy fighting kidnap-for-ransom syndicates, drug lords and bank robbers."

Lacson lamented that since he decided to run for senator in 2001 and now as an aspiring presidential candidate, "every conceivable crime and accusation" has been leveled against him.

In his speech before the Financial Executives of the Philippines, which was read for him by House Assistant Minority Leader Gilbert Remulla, Lacson stressed his "untarnished image" and achievements as PNP chief.

"Just a year before then (2001), I was the good guy fighting kidnap-for-ransom syndicates, going after drug lords and seizing their evil produce, neutralizing bank robbers, stopping policemen from inflicting their nefarious kotong against lowly jeepney and taxi drivers. I caused the return of carnapped vehicles to their rightful owners, after the same had been recovered for the personal use of cops and their families," Lacson enumerated.

He said he forbade police generals and their bodyguards from playing golf and ordered policemen to trim down their waistlines.

Because of his programs, he said the net trust rating of the PNP dramatically rose from -13 to an all-time high of +58.

Unfortunately, he said, the people have short memories of his achievements and after "a deluge of wild charges from the least sublime to the most ridiculous... people forgot what I was, what I had tried to do to secure them, their lives and their properties."

"Now they have painted me as the bad guy," Lacson said, adding that he is now deeply stressed over the black propaganda being waged against him by the Arroyo administration.

More than a week ago, he said verified information he received showed that Malacañang already knew how the High Tribunal would decide. And in anticipation of that decision, Malacañang formed a task force — complete with decoy arresting and manhunt team — to apprehend him.

He said it is unfortunate that people refuse to believe his allegations against First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo on the Jose Pidal scandal but took hook, line and sinker the Kuratong Baleleng charge.

Meanwhile, he seems to have accepted that the case would now have to proceed although he questioned the Supreme Court yesterday over its decision to re-raffle the case to a special court for heinous crimes.

In a motion for reconsideration, the senator asked the High Tribunal not to remove the case from Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 81. His lawyers contended they saw no compelling reason for the SC to transfer the case to another trial court.

The SC, however, argued that the since the accused was charged with murder, which is classified under Republic Act No. 7659 as a heinous crime, it should be tried by a special court. These are QC RTC branches 76, 86,95, 102, 103, and 219.

"Branch 81 of the QC RTC is a heinous crimes court and as such it is the court’s duty and mandate to hear murder cases... it has not been shown to be vacant, incompetent, prejudiced, or incapacitated to act thereon," Lacson argued in his motion.

QC RTC Branch 81 was the same branch that dismissed the charges on March 29, 1999 against Lacson and his co-accused under Judge Wenceslao Agnir Jr.

Agnir was promoted Court of Appeals justice shortly after his decision on the Kuratong Baleleng case came out.

But Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño said that even without the SC’s order, the prosecution already has a pending motion to raffle the case.

Zuño said there will be actually no reopening of old cases against the senator and his co-accused since they were already dismissed by Agnir.

"This is a new case. After the dismissal of the old case, we filed new information based on the statements of the new witnesses so we have a new docket number, which should be raffled," Zuño explained.

"This time, Senator Lacson is now a principal, not an accessory to the crime," he added.

No bail was recommended for the accused as multiple murder charges were filed against them.

Sources disclosed that the prosecution would prefer that the new cases be reassigned to any judge except Judge Theresa Yadao of QC RTC Branch 81.

Reports said Yadao was endorsed to the post by ousted President Joseph Estrada’s brother-in-law Raul de Guzman and former senator Juan Ponce Enrile.

Earlier, former justice secretary Hernando Perez also said that the DOJ was mulling the possibility of asking for the inhibition of Yadao if the cases were not raffled off anew.

This was after the SC, on May 28, 2002, tossed back to Yadao’s sala the Kuratong Baleleng case.

Perez refused to say why the DOJ was bent on having the case out of Yadao’s hand.

State Prosecutor Peter Ong, however, explained that the DOJ move did not mean they were questioning Yadao’s impartiality but prosecution only deemed it fit to have the case re-raffled as new criminal complaints were filed. — with Aurea Calica