Lawmaker tells Ping to return, face the music

MANILA, Philippines - A lawmaker and former colleague of Sen. Panfilo Lacson in the Philippine National Police (PNP) urged yesterday the fugitive senator to surrender and “face the music.”

Antipolo Rep. Reynaldo Acop told reporters that Lacson’s argument that he went into hiding because he could not get a fair trial under the Arroyo administration does not hold anymore because there is a new government now headed by President Aquino.

“Now that he’s (Lacson) in hiding, I would like to ask him to come back and face the music. It’s the only way for him to settle the issue,” Acop said.

He said Lacson is “the most secretive officer that I’ve known” and he has no way of communicating with him now.

Acop, however, admitted that the senator congratulated him when he won the congressional race through his Senate staff.

When asked whether he thinks Lacson would surrender, he said: “Eventually, he will.”

“We have a saying, the long arm of the law will catch up with him. But if I were him, I will come out and face it (double murder charges),” Acop said.

AFP hands off on Ping case

Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) new leadership has adopted a “do nothing policy” against Senator Lacson.

“We are now focused on our mandate of protecting the people and the state. It’s not our job to go after Sen. Lacson. It’s already beyond us. It’s political,” said AFP deputy chief for intelligence Brig. Gen. Francisco Cruz.

Cruz was responding to questions whether the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces (ISAFP) is still interested in Lacson, who is rumored to have discreetly returned to the country.

The ISAFP, along with other law enforcement agencies, silently but actively participated in the hunt for the fugitive senator.

There were also persistent reports that ISAFP agents played a crucial role in gathering the testimonies of former police officers Cezar Mancao and Glenn Dumlao in the United States that were used in the filing of double murder charges against Lacson.

With the ISAFP’s exclusion from the court order in the hunt for Lacson, the NBI and the PNP were left alone to coordinate with the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) for the issuance of a “red notice” to expedite the senator’s arrest. – With Jaime Laude