Lacson denies knowing Mawanay

Mawanay who?

Sen. Panfilo Lacson  dismissed yesterday allegations that he forced Angelo “Ador” Mawanay, a self-proclaimed former police agent, to testify on the national broadband network deal investigation against the government.

Mawanay said Lacson even threatened to harm him if he would not follow the senator’s order for him to attend the NBN-ZTE mess hearings and falsify bank documents, prompting him to seek protection from the Department of Justice and House Speaker Prospero Nograles.

In denying the accusations, Lacson said he did not know Mawanay, who had been identifying himself as former agent of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force,  which the senator used to head. He expressed belief Mawanay was only one of the administration’s paid hacks.

“Ano ako hilo? (What, am I, crazy?) I won’t involve myself with Mawanay. I want to clarify that I don’t know Mawanay. The first time I heard of him was when he came out falsely accusing me of so many things. I don’t know that God created someone named Ador Mawanay,” Lacson said over the radio.

 “He claims to be an agent of PAOCTF when I was head of the Philippine National Police. I don’t know him. Neither I, nor any of my staff will call him to stop him from doing what he wants to do. I will not stoop to his level and more so,  threaten him,” he said.

Lacson described Mawanay as one of the “seasonal witnesses” of the Palace who would come out everytime he would go full blast in exposing government anomalies. He said these witnesses would even appear on government television stations, particularly before live telecast of the lotto draw, to make sure that the public could catch the “info-mercials” discrediting him. 

 Mawanay first appeared in 2001 accusing Lacson of involvement in a string of murder, kidnapping and drug-related cases. He later turned around and hinted that President Arroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, was the one behind his exposés on  Lacson.

He was even detained in the Senate once for accusing Sen. Loren Legarda of involvement in cellphone smuggling without any evidence.

Lacson said Mawanay surfaced again apparently to “make a living” just like another witness against him, Mary Rosebud Ong.  Mawanay and Ong were the witnesses of then Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines under Victor Corpus.

“I cannot control their coming out or those people  willing to pay them for whatever they want said,” he said.