Lacson dissociates from arrested aide

No able general would employ only one line of defense. Sen. Panfilo Lacson, an ex-general, put up three upon newsbreak of former aide Michael Ray Aquino’s arrest in New York for passing stolen FBI secrets ostensibly to the Opposition. Media handlers applied diversion, howling why the FBI in the first place imperialistically was compiling dossiers on the Philippines. Lacson also launched subtle offense by warning NBI Dir. Reynaldo Wycoco against making political issue of the espionage rap. The third defense was deception: Lacson volunteered that Aquino had indeed been e-mailing him since January, but only political rumors and never US intelligence items.

But, as Abe Lincoln quipped, no man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar. Lacson’s unsolicited info about Internet chats does not jibe with what he claimed only last March, when Aquino was first held then bailed for overstaying in the US on a tourist visa. That time, he swore to have no contact with the fugitive police colonel, only with his relatives in Manila. Yet even that contradicted Lacson’s earlier line when asked, during his 2004 presidential run, about Aquino being wanted for kidnapping and murder. He snorted then that they communicated only whenever Aquino telephoned text messages.

Lacson has good reason to dissociate himself from his deputy at the dreaded Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force. Aquino faces the serious charge of espionage, which could fetch 20 years in prison and fine of $500,000, plus conspiracy and acting as unregistered foreign agent, for another 10 years and $200,000. The US embassy reveals that three past and present Filipino officials, whom US Attorney Christopher Christie hinted to be with the Opposition, are implicated. Any link to Aquino now would be too close for Lacson’s comfort, since he often vacations in America where two sons reside and his wife runs businesses. Only last week he dodged a bench warrant from a California judge by having "friends" pay $31,000 civil damages to a Filipino-American businesswoman. Any allusion as one of the three conspirators would mar Lacson’s political career. Mere talk of it could diminish domestic and overseas repute.

Moreover, Aquino has a dark past that Lacson needs to break from. Aquino had fled to the US in July 2001 on the eve of indictment for the abduction and strangling eight months prior of publicist Bubby Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito. No less than PAOCTF fellow-colonel Glenn Dumlao had confessed to Aquino’s masterminding. At least two other officers linked to the grisly deed mysteriously have been killed. Aquino and Lacson also had been charged in 1995 with rubbing out 11 bank-heist suspects, including a minor and two women, to swipe their P52 million and $2 million loot. A Filipino-American group believes the case to be related to Lacson’s purchase in 1996, as a mere police colonel, of a house in California and several huge deposits to US banks.

Still another case was filed in June 2001 against Aquino and Lacson for abducting the family of a Chinese drug trafficker, killing the latter, and reselling the narcotics. Included in that charge by former narc Mary Ong is wiretapping of hotel rooms without court clearance. Resurrection of the case file could bolster to Arroyo Administration claims that Lacson was behind the wiretapping of an election official and altering of the tape by an NBI bureaucrat and an army spy once seconded to the PAOCTF.

In all of Aquino’s cases, the name of former PAOCTF vice chief Cesar Mancao figures. Mancao had fled with him to America to elude the Dacer-Corbito kidnap-murder, and now reportedly works as security chief of a California factory.

Reports also had linked Aquino and Mancao to the May 2001 siege of Malacañang by followers of deposed president Joseph Estrada. With other Opposition figures, Lacson allegedly planned to restore Estrada to power, but only as figurehead to sugarcoat a junta. Lacson risks picturing as power hungry if that affair is recalled. It could also summon up his unauthorized trip to Washington in Nov. 2000, with Philippine Military Academy classmate Gen. Jake Malajacan, to sell himself as viable alternative to Estrada’s crumbling regime.

The discovery of the filching of FBI documents came only by chance. FBI analyst Leandro Aragoncillo had visited Aquino in jail in March a day after arrest for violating US immigration laws. A routine check by the Dept. of Homeland Security unraveled Aragoncillo’s sale of 101 classified FBI files to Aquino. Aragoncillo is deep in $500,000 debts. Federal agents are looking into how the unemployed Aquino could have paid him off; thus, the probe of the three Filipino officials to be named in next week’s hearing.

Association with Aquino could open Lacson to similar checks by US agencies. No one knows where such probes can lead. One on ties to Mancao could reopen the file on the latter’s 1998 arrest at the US-Canada border for smuggling PAOCTF dollars. This, in turn, could spur queries on "PAOCTF Support Groups" of former Filipino cops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and New Jersey. The one in San Francisco that meets regularly at a downtown Chinese diner and a suburban country club had handled Aquino and Mancao’s arrival in July 2001.

Lacson also risks from any US probe a link to former military finance chief Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, also a PMA buddy. Washington has taken keen interest in Garcia, presently under court martial and civilian trial for plundering P352 million in military funds. Part of the lost money had come from US military aid, so the US desires punishment of everyone involved. Garcia, though then still in the service, had openly campaigned for Lacson’s 2004 presidential run.

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