Wycoco to Lacson: Keep your cool

CABIAO, Nueva Ecija – "Cool it, baby."

This was the friendly advice of National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Reynaldo Wycoco to Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who vowed to block the NBI chief’s confirmation because he is "unqualified and incompetent."

"We used to be friends. We had no serious quarrels. So all I can say to Senator Lacson is ‘Cool it, baby," Wycoco told reporters here over the weekend in reaction to Lacson’s public tirades against him.

"I understand him," Wycoco said. "He is faced with problems that make him hot-headed and sometimes make him take things personally. But he’s a senator now. He should act like a senator."

Wycoco supposedly gained the ire of Lacson after Wycoco made headway in the kidnap-murder case of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito. Lacson has been linked by former agents of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) to the case.

The NBI was also involved in the reopening of the Kuratong Baleleng rubout case, where Lacson and several other police officials were implicated.

The bureau also figured in the exposé of Angelo Mawanay, who claims to have been a civilian agent of the PAOCTF, which Lacson used to head.

Mawanay has accused Lacson of being directly involved in trafficking narcotics and several other high-profile crimes.

But Wycoco said he had nothing personal against Lacson and advised Lacson to learn to take things in stride.

The NBI chief said that is exactly what he did when then President Joseph Estrada appointed Lacson as Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, although he (Wycoco) was more senior than Lacson.