No  court  tried,  let alone convicted,  Senator Panfilo  Lacson  of  having  Presidential Anti-Organized Crime  Task Force  men  rub out  publicist  Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and  driver Emmanuel  Corbito.
Lacson  was not born yesterday. He  knew what  his   hush-hush  scramming   would  unleash.   Accusations of  admitting  culpability  is the least of  them.

“He who flees from trial confesses his guilt.”, the Syrian  writer  Publius Syrus wrote in the first century BC “  Other  axioms   snap  at  Lacson’s  heels –   wherever he is.

Lacson  is not in Australia,  National Bureau of Investigation’s Ricardo Diaz said. "Our intelligence counterparts in Australia (confirm he)  is not  there.

On  January 7, the Justice Department  lodged  double murder charges  in connection   with the Dacer-Corbito killings.  Bureau  of   Immigration   records  confirm Lacson  slipped  to Hong Kong  two days  earlier. So  did “Joc-Joc” Bolante before him.

The  agriculture  undersecretary preferred  a US immigration  prison cell. To appearing  before Senate investigators, including   Lacson. They were  probing   into  P728 million dissipated  for  substandard fertilizers s  during President Gloria Macapagal  Arroyo’s   election campaign.:

Lacson ‘s  leave from the Senate has expired.  He’s  been   tagged  absent in Senate roll calls.    Parliamentary  immunity also  does not  blanket murder  raps. It  covers only crimes   that carry penalties less than six years.

Twenty two armed men  ,in civvies, flagged down  Dacer and Corbito  in Makati  November 2000.  Their burnt remains turned up in barangay Buna Lejos, Indang Cavite. UP forensic pathologists identified Dacer and Corbito, based among others, on metal dental plates and a ring.

PAOCTF  washed it’s hands. Then, Gen. Panfilo Lacson oversaw this agency with aides:Michael Ray Aquino, Cesar Mancao, Glenn Dumlao and others, under  President Estrada..

A PMA ‘ 72 graduate, Lacson rose to national power starting with the Marcos torture chamber: Military Intelligence Security Group, says the Yale University study: “Closer Than Brothers”

Bitter privilege speeches  between  Lacson and Senator Jinggoy Estrada   preceded  this bailout.  ..  The strike-counterstrike of  privileged  speeches, guaranteed “mutual  assured destruction”,  predicted  Senator Miriam Santiago.   “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.”

Lacson  had Dacer-Corbito murdered, Estrada claimed, not  President  Joseph.  Former  Lacson  aide-flipped-state witness  Cezar Mancao hinted  Bigote was the mastermind.. If anything happened  Lacson would be responsible,  Dacer told his children.. 

Estrada   tried to  pin  on Lacson  the   Kuratong Baleleng  massacre, rub out of  a Western Manila  police officer, Red Scorpion gang relatives, etc. Lacson   had  witnesses --  a 20 year old woman and an eight-year-old girl  -- dumped from a helicopter  into waters off  Corregidor  Other  charges  against Erap  were  “Fiction Parts I and II,”

Lacson  fired    first Erap, who fantasizes  about become President again,  creamed  jueteng  payoffs, plus the monthly  P5million  baksheesh for PNP chiefs,  .He extorted   Philippine Long Distance Telephone shares from industrialist  Alfonso Yuchengco to favor Manny Pangilinan, On the sidelines, he  coddled  smugglers.. .

Casino worker Edgar Bentain leaked a video of  Erap  playing high stakes baccarat.   Bentain  was rubbed out in Laguna. Estrada dealt directly with  PAOCTF  officials linked to  murder of publicist Salvador Dacer – who stashed documents on the Palace-BW stock scam.

“Both camps have the goods on each other”, observed  Inquirer columnist  Solita Collas-Monsod. “And  why not?. They were together for so long,”   With signature candor,  the  professor-economist added : They were “a crooked  duo”.

Both  Estrada and Lacson sought high posts.  The two. shun  “command responsibility” and wash  their hands of  accountability. “Both did not lie.  Both told the truth – about the other.” Both  took a decade before ventilating each other’s  transgressions. And  both have been shown up as unfit for public office.”

“Joc-Joc Bolante”  play-acted  illnesses in exile. No one believed him  With his back-to-the-wall of his  undisclosed  country-bunker,   Lacson has tried to go on the offensive. He scrammed  to beat  “an evil conspiracy”. The Arroyo regime  was trying to nail him.   Will anybody buy this line?“

His track record  weighs  him down. “Under Marcos, military murder was the apex of a pyramid of terror – 3,257 killed, 35,000 tortured and 70,000 jailed,” writes Alfred McCoy in “Closer Than Brothers” ( Yale University).

“Under President Estrada,  Lacson and  other  “mistahs”  of   PMA Class 71” – which Marcos used as a mailed fist – “continued it rise to power within PNP” , McCoy told the Ateneo conference on legacy of dictatorship.  Panfilo Lacson was deputy director of  the notorious  Military Intelligence Security Group and  indicted for the brutal (Kuratong ) massacre,”

“How guilt once harbour'd in the conscious breast,/ Intimidates the brave, degrades the great,” we read in the “House of  Seven  Gables.”

Will Lacson, who once sought the presidency,   become just another Joc-Joc wandering in aimless  circles?    The answer indicates the future .of this troubled nation.

(Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )