Erap denies Lacson charges

Former President Joseph Estrada on Monday belied all the accusations hurled against him by Sen. Panfilo Lacson, even as he questioned the lawmaker's motives against him. In an interview over GMA News' prime time newscast "24 Oras," Estrada expressed doubts about Lacson’s timing, saying the lawmaker could be attacking him because of his high ratings in the presidential race surveys.
For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV "Hindi ko nga malaman eh kung ano ang kanyang motibo na gagawin niya yan puro kasinungalingan naman. Kung may katotohanan yan dapat noon pa bakit nag antay siya ng halos siyam na tao bago niya isniwalat yan.... Kung may ebidensya siya dapat nilabas na niya yan nung ako nililitis pa sa Sandiganbayan. Anong motibo niya dahil nakikita niya na isa tayo sa top survey sa pagka presidente?" Estrada said. (I don't know what his motives are. If he's telling the truth, why did he have to wait for nine years... If he has evidence, he should have divulged them when I was on trial at the Sandiganbayan. His motive might be because he sees me near the top of the surveys for the presidency?) Estrada was reacting to Lacson’s privilege speech at the Senate where the lawmaker accused him of being a protector of jueteng operators, a godfather of smugglers, and a bully. [See: Lacson declares all-out war vs ex-boss; Erap fights back] According to Lacson, he and Estrada had a disagreement in 2000 over jueteng, a popular illegal numbers game, resulting to him being unofficially declared as a virtual persona non grata in Malacañang. He said Estrada wanted to keep jueteng going despite his repeated objections as then chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP). Estrada denied using jueteng for his personal gains. He said he even wanted to legalize instead of eradicating the numbers game because the government has no alternative jobs to offer those poor people who rely on it as their means of living. The former president also said he could not understand why Lacson, then PNP chief, is accusing him of protecting smugglers when he gave him the “full authority" to put a stop to the illegal activity. Dacer-Corbito During his speech, Lacson fell short of directly linking Estrada to the Dacer-Corbito killings, only saying that the former president had micro-managed the now defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), which is implicated in the case, during his term. But Estrada reiterated his earlier statement that he was not involved in the killings. He also claimed that Lacson could be pinning him down because “naiipit na yata siya dun sa Dacer-Corbito, gusto yata niya humanap ng damay (he's being enmeshed in the Dacer-Corbito case, maybe he wants others to go down with him)." Estrada also said he did not know the police officers involved in the double murder. “Hindi ako kailanman nag-utos sa subordinate niya. Lahat yan ay under his direct supervision. Kami lang ang nagkakausap. Ganon ang style ng management ko, yung lang head lang ng agency ang kausap ko." (I never gave orders to his subordinates, who were all under his direct supervision. I was dealing only with him. That's my style of management, I deal only with the head of the agency.) At the same time, Estrada denied forcing businessman Alfonso Yuchengco to sign conveyance of his 7.75 percent Philippine Telecommunications Investment Corporation holdings to Metro Pacific represented by Manuel Pangilinan. According to Estrada, he and the government were not involved, as it was a private transaction. - GMANews.TV