EDITORIAL - Just one good guy

He’s just the good guy who used to fight kidnappers, drug dealers and bank robbers, according to Sen. Panfilo Lacson. Or at least that was the message in the speech read for him yesterday by a fellow opposition member before the Financial Executives of the Philippines.

Okay, fine. Now if he’s really such a good guy, and serious about his bid for the highest post in the land, Lacson should set an example by bowing to the decision of the Supreme Court and facing the charges revived against him in connection with the Kuratong Baleleng multiple murder case.

The charges are serious and could send him to the lethal injection chamber. Lacson will need a formidable legal strategy to defend himself – certainly something more than allowing his handlers to malign the integrity of the Supreme Court and the rest of the judiciary. Unless Lacson intends to take to the hills or follow some of his co-accused into exile, he will need to contend with this judiciary.

There are those who share Lacson’s suspicion that the administration’s hand is all over the revival of the case. There could be some basis for this, but it looks more like the administration simply got lucky, and latched on to something that prosecution lawyers had unearthed on their own to justify the revival of a case dismissed during the previous administration, when Lacson was one of the most powerful in government.

The timing of the decision guaranteed that the case would be tarred by politics, coming as it did amid public anticipation of the final chapter of Lacson’s exposés against First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo. But the timing could have been worse.

The nation’s highest court has spoken, and the people – particularly a senator – must heed the court. The people want to know the truth behind the Kuratong Baleleng killings, and determine if anyone should be pu-nished. Many of the accused in the case found themselves in this mess because of a mindset that places above the law those in positions of authority. Lacson, as a serious aspirant for the presidency, should show that he is ready to respect and uphold the law instead of keeping himself beyond its reach.