PNP readies Ft. Sto. Domingo cell for Lacson and his aides

Anticipating the eventual arrest of most of the 30 suspects in the May 1995 Kuratong Baleleng rubout case, including Sen. Panfilo Lacson, the Philippine National Police (PNP) has readied three detention places where the suspects will be temporarily held.

Unlike ordinary detainees, authorities have classified them as security risks, sources close to Chief Superintendent Eduardo Matillano, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) said.

"Once the warrant of arrest is issued and they are arrested, the suspects will be separated in three groups," the sources said.

The first group, which will be composed of Lacson and his aides Senior Superintendents Michael Ray Aquino and Cesar Mancao, will be detained at the bungalow detention house inside the Special Action Force (SAF) training school at Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

The second group, composed of senior, middle and junior-grade police officers implicated in the celebrated crime, will be detained at the newly-constructed detention facility for suspected local and foreign terrorists at the PNP Intelligence Group (PNP-IG) at Camp Crame.

And the third group, which include officers with the least participation in the murder case or what authorities dubbed as the "little Indians," will be housed at the CIDG detention cell.

PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. inspected the three jails last Sunday. After the inspection, Ebdane ordered the installation of additional steel security railings and electronic gadgets to monitor movements inside the three jails.

Lacson and his men were charged before the Quezon City regional trial court in connection with the alleged mass execution of 11 suspected Kuratong Baleleng robbery and kidnap gang members along Commonwealth Avenue on May 18, 1995.

Lacson was then chief of the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission’s Task Force Habagat.

The case was dismissed by the lower court but was reopened recently by the High Court after government prosecutors contested the lower court’s decision.

Lacson has lambasted the SC ruling saying that it was an attempt by the government to derail his political plans.

One of Lacson’s "mistah" (classmate) at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) told The STAR that despite all the preparations for Lacson’s arrest, he expects delays in the trial of the Kuratong Baleleng case.

"Knowing him, he (Lacson) will not simply allow things to go against him and the public should expect that this Kuratong case could drag until 2004, well in time for the national elections," retired PNP director general Rex Piad, predicted.

Piad and Lacson had a falling out when Piad allied himself with former PNP chief and now Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza and led a bloodless takeover of the Camp Crame during the EDSA II uprising against the Estrada regime.