NBI to Lacson coddlers: You will be charged, too

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Tuesday warned personalities who may be coddling fugitive Senator Panfilo Lacson -- eluding arrest since January in connection with the Dacer-Corbito case -- that they would also be charged in court. “If we arrest the senator and we’ll be able to know his protectors, the latter will also be charged," said NBI spokesman Special Investigator IV Cecilio Zamora. He said it is not difficult to believe that Lacson has protectors, noting that the senator is a former high-ranking official in the Philippine National Police (PNP). “He was once the PNP director. If meron (there is a) protector, [it] can’t be avoided. We can’t do anything about it if he is being protected by others," he said. Lacson, as concurrent head of PNP and the now defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) in November 2000, allegedly ordered his men to abduct and subsequently kill publicist Salvador “Bubby" Dacer and Dacer’s driver Emmanuel Corbito. Lacson has repeatedly denied the charges and has asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) for a reinvestigation Zamora, meanwhile, defended the NBI from criticisms regarding its apparent inability to catch Lacson. “We must remember that Senator Lacson is a moving target, so he keeps on leaving. We just took chances to bag him if ever he is in that place," he said. Zamora was reacting to allegations that the recent unsuccessful raids in Quezon City and Tanauan, Batangas, to find the senator were just “for show." “NBI personnel are risking their lives, knowing that they might be met with bullets. So how can they say that they are just for a show?" he said. Zamora said they are hoping to serve the warrant of arrest on Lacson before Christmas. “We will do everything [to arrest Lacson]. But we cannot divulge other places where the senator might be hiding so as not to jeopardize the operation," he said. - KBK, GMANews.TV