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The revival of the Kuratong Baleleng multiple murder case is yet another reminder of much that is wrong with our country.

You can actually smell politics in the reopening of the case. This, however, is aggravated by the response of the accused – which is to make his case by trotting out a nut like Angelo "Ador" Mawanay. This smacks of desperation and Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s handlers should dump that cell phone salesman. The furor over political persecution and Mawanay is threatening to drown out the main issue, which is the alleged summary execution of 11 members of the notorious Kuratong Baleleng robbery gang.

And I suspect there are many Filipinos who wouldn’t mind drowning out that controversy because they fully support vermin eradication by any means.

We all know crooks get "salvaged" or executed in this country. They get shot while trying to escape or lunging (while handcuffed) for a cop’s gun. They are killed in encounters where no lawman ever gets wounded. They are shot dead when they resist arrest. It’s been done before and it will continue to be done. It’s faster than waiting for a court trial. It’s cheaper than paying for the upkeep of yet another jailbird. So why pick on Lacson, the man who wants to be president?

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Since late last year there was already a growing buzz that the Supreme Court would order the revival of the Kuratong Baleleng case. Perhaps it was purely conjecture. Perhaps some people had the inside track on the Supreme Court, which has not escaped questions about its independence and integrity.

The buzz was strongest a month ago, but maybe people became engrossed in the looming war in Iraq so no ruling was handed down. Or did someone make sure the decision would be released while the war held our rapt attention?

The buzz, from all indications, did not escape Lacson. He had the inside track down to the exact date the decision would be handed down. That’s the only reason I can think of for his announcement of his candidacy for president on the eve of the release of the ruling. No, he did not clear his announcement with the opposition. But it made it easier for him to cry political harassment the next day when the ruling was finally handed down.

His premature announcement drew a clarification the next day from the Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP), the party of his political patron Joseph Estrada, that they had not yet counted out businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. and action king Fernando Poe Jr. – two men without Lacson’s legal baggage – as the opposition’s standard bearer in 2004.

So far the attempt to link Malacañang to the Supreme Court decision has been muddled. I’m not ruling out the Palace’s hand, but if Malacañang did send word to the tribunal, how can you prove it? For sure there’s no executive order. If incriminating phone conversations have been tapped we would have heard about that by now.

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The only way out for Lacson is to face the legal music, and to delay any possible conviction long enough for him to win the presidency, if ever. Unless the main opposition party backs him, however, the presidency is looking increasingly like a long shot for him.

If he wants his enemies to call off their dogs, he may want to aim lower and settle for re-election to the Senate. But he probably thinks they would go after him anyway, even if he leaves politics altogether.

If he had no political ambitions and no enemies hounding him, Lacson will probably admit awareness, at the very least, that the Kuratong Baleleng gang had been executed by a composite police team under the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission. It’s interesting to note that PACC was then headed by Erap, at the time vice president and the Ramos administration’s designated chief crime buster. Would Erap also be implicated in this case?

The Kuratong Baleleng, like the Red Scorpion Group, was a creation of constabulary elements in the national police. An officer who retired as a general after being implicated in a celebrated double murder case set up the Kuratong initially as a paramilitary anti-crime group based in Surigao. A clan whose members have become prominent in Ozamis City formed the core of the group. The Kuratong was used by its handler not only to fight crime but also for staging armed robberies. Like the RSG, the gang eventually turned into an uncontrollable monster. When such gangs outlive their usefulness to their handlers, the gangs are neutralized.

I’ve been told by reliable sources that Lacson truly had no direct involvement even in planning the rubout (if you don’t think it was a rubout, you should buy a cell phone from Mawanay). But because he was the top police officer at the PACC at the time, he is now being held responsible for the entire operation.

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Lacson, like Davao’s tough-talking mayor Rodrigo Duterte, has never tried to dispel perceptions that he is ready to take extrajudicial short cuts to enforce the law. He has never tried to soften his image or paper over his long association with the most notorious human rights violators during martial law.

Torture and summary executions outlived martial law and Ferdinand Marcos. Lazy, brutal cops with little knowledge of or interest in scientific criminal investigation still routinely resort to physical abuse of suspects. The result: half-baked cases that are thrown out by the courts, innocent people "confessing" and the guilty remaining free. And abusive cops continue to create monsters such as the Kuratong Baleleng gang.

Few people are weeping for the likes of the Kuratong Baleleng. Lacson, if the PMP will pick him up from his sinkhole, may in fact gain sympathy votes in 2004 because of the revival of the case – if he isn’t convicted first. Filipinos love Dirty Harry types, as long as they’re not the ones in Dirty Harry’s crosshairs.

Some are hoping that this case, with a senator accused as principal, may finally send the fear of God into the hearts of those who like taking short cuts in law enforcement. It may help usher the Philippine National Police into the ways of 21st century criminal investigation.

With the way the case has been handled so far, however, the accused may even emerge as a winner. Which says a lot about how dysfunctional our society has become.