NBI says it has leads on Lacson’s whereabouts

With a global manhunt for Senator Panfilo Lacson about to begin, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Sunday said it had received information on the lawmaker’s whereabouts. But Ricardo Diaz, head of the NBI's counter-terrorism division, declined to say where Lacson was since doing so, he said, might hamper efforts to bring the senator to justice. A court has ordered the arrest of Lacson, who is facing charges for the murder of veteran publicist Salvador “Bubby" Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000. The NBI is about to tap the International Criminal Police Organization’s (Interpol) help in following the trail of Lacson, who left the country to evade what he claimed was political persecution by the Arroyo administration. "We already have an idea but we can not give it to the media because it would be tantamount to telegraphing our moves to him. I know he's also monitoring us," Diaz said in a phone interview on Sunday. He added that government investigators were not underestimating Lacson, a former chief of the Philippine National Police, because the senator “also knows how the cooperation among Interpol member-countries works." Diaz said the NBI and Philippine National Police would ask the Interpol to issue a “red notice" to expedite Lacson’s arrest. He added that the NBI had started monitoring Lacson last week, but the counterparts in the international community could not hold the senator because he was not yet on the Interpol’s red notice. The notice is not considered an "international arrest warrant," but will only allow arrest warrants issued in local courts to be circulated in 188 member-countries of the Interpol. Once the Interpol issues a red notice, it can hold Lacson, Diaz said. On Sunday, one of his lawyers said they would ask a Manila court on Monday to reconsider its finding of probable cause in the double murder case. (See Lacson's lawyers to contest arrest warrant on Monday) The senator, who had maintained innocence on the Dacer-Corbito killings, admitted he had fled the country to escape an alleged conspiracy between Malacañang and the Department of Justice. Last Friday, Manila RTC Branch 18 Presiding Judge Myra Garcia Fernandez issued an arrest warrant on Lacson. ‘Ill-advised’ Meanwhile, two Malacañang officials criticized Senator Gregorio “Gringo" Honasan for giving Lacson — his classmate at the Philippine Military Academy Class 1971 — his advice to evade justice. Honasan, who had been a fugitive from the law on several occasions in the past for his involvement in coup attempts against the sitting administration, was quoted by the Philippine Star as telling Lacson that he should master the art of disguise, to pray and persevere. This did not sit well with Cabinet Secretary Silvestre Bello. “I don’t know if he (Honasan) was serious in his advice, but the best advice to give to a friend is to advise him to go to court and fight it out," Bello told government-run Radyo ng Bayan on Sunday. “If you are [facing] arrest, you have to show yourself before [the] court," Press Undersecretary Gary Olivar told the same radio station in a separate interview. — NPA/KBK, GMANews.TV