Exposé Part 2: Bentain murder

MANILA, Philippines - Opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson said yesterday he is ready with the next phase of his exposé to include information on the alleged involvement of former President Joseph Estrada in the disappearance of former Philippine Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) employee Edgar Bentain in 1998.

“I have additional information. I’m gathering more details on Bentain, on rice smuggling, and other issues),” Lacson said in Filipino. Lacson expects to deliver his second privilege speech next week.

He said it’s hopeless for Estrada and that he should give up. “Sumuko ka na (Surrender now),” he said, addressing the former president.

Bentain was believed to have been the source of a video tape showing then Vice President Estrada playing poker in a VIP room at one of the casinos in Manila. The videotape was handed to Manuel Morato, Erap’s political nemesis, during the 1998 presidential campaign. Unidentified armed me  snatched Bentain outside the Grand Boulevard Casino in 1998. He was never seen again.

In his rebuttal of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada’s privilege speech denying the accusations against his father, Lacson stressed he was bringing out the “bad side” of the former president because the latter was pinning him down in the double murder of Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.

Estrada had refused to be interpellated on his speech. But Lacson requested that he be allowed to issue statements also before the plenary.

“I was about to ask the gentleman from San Juan if he was aware the Dacer family already filed an amended complaint against his father with the DOJ to include Joseph Ejercito Estrada in the complaint sheet in connection with the double murder case of Salvador Bubby Dacer and Corbito,” Lacson said.

“That’s for the record, Mr. President. So it is not true this representation is the only one as alleged by the gentleman from San Juan, quoting Atty. Topacio, as the only person being complained of by the Dacer family,” Lacson added.

Mauling, KFR issues

Lacson disputed Estrada’s claim that it was former Col. Reynaldo Berroya – then head of Task Force Habagat – who introduced him to the former president.   The former police chief recalled that his first encounter with Estrada was when he arrested him for mauling the late actor Rudy Fernandez when Estrada was still mayor of San Juan. 

Lacson’s and Estrada’s paths crossed again in 1992 when Lacson headed one of the task forces under the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC) then headed by Vice President Estrada.

“He also claimed I betrayed Gen. Reynaldo Berroya but he did not say that Gen. Reynaldo Berroya, when he was still Lieutenant Colonel, was convicted for KFR (kidnap-for-ransom) of Jack Chou and it was the gentleman’s father Joseph Ejercito Estrada when he was PACC chairman who was with me in building up the case against Col. Reynaldo Berroya then,” Lacson said.

In bolstering his claims that the former president had asked him and his men at the defunct President Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) to turn a blind eye on the smuggling of 20 40-foot containers at Port Area in Manila during the early months of his presidency, Lacson said an emissary relayed to him former police colonel Glenn Dumlao’s confirmation of his accusations. Dumlao is one of the accused in the murders of Dacer and Corbito.

The former police chief also said he feels vindicated by businessman Alfonso Yuchengco’s admission that he had been coerced by the former president into giving up his 7.75 percent shares in the Philippine Telecommunications Investment Corp. (PTIC).

“These shares were taken from me in 1998 through sheer intimidation and serious threat to my businesses, myself and my family,” Lacson said, reading from Yuchengco’s statement.

“I mentioned in my privilege speech only his family and Mr. Yuchengco were threatened. Now Mr. Yuchengco is correcting that statement attributed to me yesterday, that also threatened were his businesses, so he would sell his 7.75 percent PTIC holdings,” Lacson said.

Lacson also said he took offense at being addressed only as Mr. Panfilo Morena Lacson throughout Estrada’s privilege speech. He said he deserves “a more respectful address” from his colleague.

Not an administration ally

Lacson also denied Jinggoy’s accusation that he secretly supports the administration. “I will never be an administration ally, Mr. President. I am referring to this administration. I have always fought the excesses of this administration. And for the gentleman from San Juan to aver I am already with this administration, that is a fact farthest from the truth. That will never happen, not even in my wildest imagination,” Lacson said.

He also said he did not resign despite his falling out with Estrada because of the jueteng issue because he believed it was the former president who should have resigned.

“I think it should be the other way around,” Lacson added.

He also cited Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes’s confirmation of the senator’s disagreement with Estrada.

“That’s about it and I would just like to emphasize I never lied in my privilege speech. And this can be, I can say without mental reservation and it was confirmed by no less than three people in my speech, that I did not lie. And if I did not lie, someone is saying I lied, who’s lying now?”