MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Jinggoy Estrada declared yesterday his readiness to take on the issues against Sen. Panfilo Lacson who had vowed to make a privilege speech against his father, former President Joseph Estrada.
“It is within his right to do a privilege speech. I am prepared. I have nothing to worry… We are never bothered at all,” the younger Estrada said over dwIZ radio.
Lacson, who served as Philippine National Police (PNP) chief during the Estrada administration, had vowed to reveal the “bad side” of his former boss in a privilege speech. He was supposed to drop his bombshell last week but postponed it for today.
Lacson said he would also reveal in his “chapter by chapter” privilege speech today the involvement of the former president in the murders of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.
Senator Estrada, however, said he does not expect any bombshell from Lacson.
He went on to describe Lacson as a person who has a penchant for hitting every superior he has had in his career.
“Whatever he got, which I really don’t have any idea about, I am ready to answer point by point. I will answer (them) the next day,” Estrada said.
Estrada echoed the statement of his father that they have nothing to do with murders and had no apparent motive.
Estrada said there is nothing more that Lacson can throw against his family.
“We are very confident. They have thrown everything to us, accused us of involvement in the killing of Dacer and his driver. But our conscience is clear,” the senator said.
Estrada noted Lacson had a bitter exchange of words with his father. This came after the opposition senator called on the elder Estrada to withdraw his presidential bid if he is sincere in uniting the opposition in the 2010 elections.
The former president instead blamed Lacson for spoiling the victory of the opposition in 2004 when he ran against the late Fernando Poe Jr.
In an earlier interview, Estrada said this was not the first time that Lacson had criticized his father.
“I wonder why Ping (Lacson) has been hitting all his former bosses,” Estrada said.
He noted that apart from his father, Lacson also figured in a bitter fight with former police general Reynaldo Berroya whom he accused of kidnapping.
Berroya, now an assistant secretary at the Department of Transportation and Communications, is a longtime nemesis of Lacson. Berroya was head of Task Force Lawin of the defunct Presidential Anti-Crime Commission then headed by Estrada.
Lacson was then chief of Task Force Habagat, a separate operational unit under the PACC.
Lacson then became the chief PNP and concurrent chief of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) when Estrada was elected president in 1998.
The PAOCTF was the anti-crime unit that allegedly carried out the plan to silence Dacer.
Former police senior superintendent Cezar Mancao II had accused Lacson and Estrada as among the six people behind the operation to silence Dacer.
Both Lacson and Estrada denied the charges. The former president said Lacson, then being the PAOCTF chief, was supposed to know the existence of the operation.
Lacson, however, claimed he was not informed of the operation and was deliberately cut out of the loop.