GMA tells Ping: I am not behind your problems

"I sympathize with you but don’t blame me."

This was the reply of President Arroyo to the accusation of Sen. Panfilo Lacson that she was behind the string of serious criminal charges being leveled against him by the military, police and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

"My interest in his case is not a personal fight against him but it has to do with a nationwide program to fight organized crime," she said in a prepared statement in Filipino which she read during her weekly press conference.

"The truth is, I sympathize with Senator Lacson but he has the obligation to face his accusers and answer the charges against him. If he has done no wrong, he has nothing to fear... The senator should erase his doubts that I am behind his problems," she said.

Lacson accused the President on Tuesday of ordering military intelligence chief Col. Victor Corpus, the Philippine National Police and the NBI to tarnish his image because he is perceived to be a strong presidential contender in 2004.

"The accusations of Senator Lacson are not true. The allegations against him started when I was not even President yet," she said.

"He should not blame the President of the Philippines for his problems. It will not help his case. What he should do is to answer these allegations against him. I will pray that he will succeed in explaining his cases," she added.

Meanwhile, the opposition Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) yesterday said in a statement the attack on Lacson is an attack on jailed former President Joseph Estrada.

"The vilification campaign being launched by the government not only intends to neutralize certain opposition figures but also to influence the judiciary in its view regarding the cases of Estrada," the PMP said in a statement.

Opposition spokesman Jesus Crispin Remulla cited the testimony of Indian businessman Danny Devnani in the Senate hearings on the allegations against Lacson.

"The sudden inclusion of Mr. Devnani, a self-confessed gambler in the gallery of Mr. Corpus’ doubtful set of witnesses, is the latest in the government’s attempt to influence the courts into deciding against President Estrada," Remulla said.

Remulla said the government’s latest maneuver to drag Mr. Estrada’s name into the Senate probe is significant considering the Supreme Court is now deliberating on Estrada’s petition questioning the legality of the anti-plunder law.

At the same time, Sen. Blas Ople renewed his call for the three Senate committees probing the allegations against Lacson to wind up the probe before "insidious forces succeed in destroying the nation’s leading institutions."

He proposed that the committees end all hearings by the end of September so that the Senate could concentrate on the pending bills in the chamber, most of which were drawn from the President’s State of the Nation Address.

Ople warned that unless there is a cap on these hearings, the Senate would be licensing anyone to destroy leading institutions.

"This could create a dangerous vacuum in which threats to national security and stability can only flourish," he added.