Palace official: It's best for Sen. Lacson to return to RP

(Updated 6:17 p.m.) A day after Senator Panfilo Lacson's passports were canceled, a Malacañang communications official said on Saturday it would be best for the lawmaker to just return to the Philippines and face the double-murder charges against him. Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Secretary Ramon “Ricky" Carandang said Lacson should prove before the Justice department that the charges were indeed "politically motivated" as the senator claimed. The charges stemmed from the twin killings of publicist Salvador “Bubby" Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, on Nov. 24, 2000. "Maraming mga kailangang tignan dito na anggulo (We need to look into many angles here). But I guess it's best for the DOJ to look into these allegations kung may basehan ba talaga (and see if these really have basis)," he said in an interview on radio dzRB. "[So] I guess the best way para mangyari iyan ay bumalik si Sen. Lacson (So I guess the best way for that to happen is for Sen. Lacson to return)," Carandang said. Lacson flew out of the country on January 5, just two days before the previous Department of Justice (DOJ) leadership filed two counts of murder against him before the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Banch 18. The senator fled to Hong Kong, but members of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) who have been tracking him down cannot confirm his current whereabouts. The DFA announced on Friday the cancellation both of the senator's regular and diplomatic passport in accordance to an order from the Manila RTC Branch 18 to "take the proper steps in order that Lacson may be brought back to the Philippines." Before he became senator, Lacson was chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) from 1999 to 2001, during the short-lived presidency of Joseph Estrada. As PNP chief, Lacson also headed the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), members of which were believed to have abducted and killed Dacer and Corbito. In a 2009 affidavit, Senior Superintendent Cezar Mancao II — head of the PAOCTF’s Task Group Luzon and also a suspect in the murders — implicated Lacson and a certain "Bigote," believed to be Estrada, in the killings. Both Lacson and Estrada have repeatedly denied the allegations. Regular process Carandang also said he didn't see anything wrong with the Department of Foreign Affairs cancellation of the fugitive senator's passports as it was part of the processes in the Philippine legal system. "May prosesong sinusundan iyan (There’s a process being followed here) and I think the DOJ is just following the legal process. So ang nakikita natin dito (So what we see here is that) Sen. Lacson is undergoing the regular legal process," Carandang said. The Justice department had appealed to the DFA on two separate occasions — during the term of then Secretary Agnes Devanadera and recently under her successor, current Secretary Leila de Lima — to cancel the senator's passports because he was already considered a fugitive. Under the Philippine Passport Act of 1996, being a fugitive is one of the three grounds for the government to cancel a person's passport. (See sidebar.) The DOJ said Lacson qualified as a fugitive when the senator left the country with the "knowledge of the impending criminal charges against him... [and] may already be considered a fugitive from justice." Mancao welcomes cancellation Meanwhile, Mancao's legal counsel Ferdinand Topacio said his client welcomed the DFA cancellation of Lacson’s passport in a statement issued on Saturday. The Mancao camp also thanked the Dacers, DOJ Secretary De Lima for showing "unstinting commitment to seeing the case to its successful conclusion," and the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption. [See: NBI tries to detain Mancao but De Lima intervenes] Topacio reiterated that despite “the physical dangers, threats, intimidation, pressures and other temptations that have been thrown his way," Mancao’s “solemn vow that he will not change his testimony and will honor his commitment to the Filipino people and to Dacer and Corbito families." Since last year, Mancao has been under the Witness Protection Program and staying in an undisclosed safe house with his family, with an elite NBI team providing security. On Tuesday, the former Lacson colleague claimed that he was being pressured by emissaries of Lacson to recant his statements about the double murder case, an allegation the senator denied. — LBG/JV, GMANews.TV