Lacson files motion on ‘KB’ reopening

Beleaguered Sen. Panfilo Lacson filed an appeal yesterday asking the Supreme Court to reconsider its April 1 decision ordering a reopening of the 1995 Kuratong Baleleng rubout case in which he is a prime suspect.

Lacson, in a 99-page motion filed by his lawyers, asked the tribunal to dismiss the case, claiming "political persecution" by the Arroyo administration.

"In the present case, respondent had shown why the state had squandered that opportunity and only hastened to reopen the case when it was convenient for the administrators of the current government to do so – when they identified respondent as a threat to their existence being a promising candidate for President in 2004," Lacson said in his petition.

A key ally of deposed President Joseph Estrada, Lacson claimed that the Arroyo administration was trying to revive the case to derail his plan to seek the presidency in next year’s elections.

"For six long years, respondent has been defending himself from all the brickbats and cheap shots thrown against him by those who do not like him, and now by the current administration… None of the foregoing, however, was proven true. The current administration simply found respondent their favorite whipping boy, a convenient punching bag," he said.

He cited a number of high-profile crimes which, he alleged, were pinned on him by the government to discredit him, among them the November 2000 murder of publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver, and the assassination of his former police subordinates Chief Inspector John Campos and Senior Superintendent Teofilo Viña, both just days apart last December.

Dacer was allegedly kidnapped by police officers formerly under Lacson’s command. Campos and Viña, on the other hand, were gunned down because they planned to turn against the senator, Lacson critics said.

"The current administration, in persistently re-animating these tired ghosts of (the Kuratong Baleleng case) has caused grave and irreparable damage and prejudice to respondent’s constitutional rights, not to mention his good name and peace of mind. And yet, at the end of the day, these specters are nothing but manifestation of political opportunism and oppression behind a lot of hot air," Lacson said in his appeal.

"This Honorable Court’s majority may have overlooked clear acts of persecution committed by the government against respondent, the suffering and distress endured by him, and this administration’s continuing campaign to impede, derail or prevent his candidacy."

On April 1, the Supreme Court — voting 10-4 with one abstention — ordered the revival of the Kuratong Baleleng rubout case, in which Lacson, who then headed a police task force in 1995, was accused of ordering a summary execution of 11 suspected Kuratong gang members.

Lacson insists that the gang members were killed in a shootout with police.

The decision stemmed from a government appeal that sought a reversal of a Court of Appeals decision on Aug. 24, 2001, barring government prosecutors from pursuing the case.

The tribunal also set aside its May 28, 2002, ruling that remanded the case to the lower court to determine if proper procedures were followed in its provisional dismissal in 1999.

Lacson’s lawyers argued that it was the lower court, Quezon City regional trial court branch 81, and not the Supreme Court, that was in the position to rule on whether the procedures were followed properly.

"This Honorable Court’s majority decision sets a perilous precedent that may be misconstrued as an assumption by this Honorable Court of the trial courts’ role as triers of fact," they said in the appeal.

In 1998, then President Joseph Estrada appointed Lacson as chief of the Philippine National Police. Lacson resigned on Jan. 21, 2001, after Estrada was ousted in a military-backed popular protest. He ran for the Senate in May 2001 under Estrada’s coalition and won.

In the run-up to the 2001 elections, the government had tried to link Lacson to several high-profile crimes committed by a police task force which he headed when he was national police chief.

In 2001, military intelligence chief Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus accused Lacson of laundering the proceeds of drug and kidnapping crimes in several overseas banks. But the government has so far failed to find conclusive evidence.

Lacson denied the allegations.