Barbers, Lacson agree ‘too many cooks spoil broth’

The bitter word war between Senate colleagues Panfilo Lacson and Robert Barbers continued yesterday, but they agreed on one thing in the government’s renewed anti-drug campaign: Too many cooks spoil the broth.

Lacson, the former national police chief who is running for president next year, suggested that President Arroyo should not designate too many drug czars and entrust the job to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to better pinpoint responsibility.

Barbers, designated as anti-drug czar by Mrs. Arroyo to work with the PDEA, agreed with his colleague, saying "too many cooks spoil the broth."

Aside from Barbers, PDEA director Anselmo Avenido is also mandated to go after drug traffickers. The President also appointed former Manila mayor Alfredo Lim as her adviser on illegal drugs.

Meanwhile, an administration lawmaker urged Lacson and Barbers to stop their word war as it is only slowing down the government’s war on illegal drugs.

"It’s very unfortunate that this noble undertaking of President Arroyo has come down to a clash among personalities," Davao City Rep. Prospero Nograles said. "We have a war that we have to win at all costs and everyone must give their share to make this happen."

Senate President Franklin Drilon said he would not intervene in the fight between the two.

"This is a matter of debate between the two senators. I don’t feel qualified to act as an arbiter," he said.

The two senators however upped the ante in their ongoing feud, with Barbers calling Lacson deaf and blind.

"Bingi yata at bulag yan," Barbers told reporters, referring to Lacson.

He was angered by his colleague’s statement on Monday linking him to suspected drug lord Lawrence Wang and urging him to show his accomplishments when he was secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) during the Ramos administration.

Barbers said Wang was arrested with 30 kilos of shabu by his men from the Police Assistance and Reaction Against Crime (PARAC) when he was DILG chief.

He said it was not the PARAC’s fault when a Mandaluyong judge dismissed the cases of possession of illegal drugs, illegal possession of firearms, and bribery of a public official the PARAC filed against Wang.

Reached for comment, Lacson merely shrugged Barbers’ statements off and said maybe Barbers was losing his cool. "Hindi ko na papatulan ’yan. Napipikon na yata si Senator Barbers."

Barbers said his Senate colleague has failed to see his accomplishments that included "quality arrests" of big-time suspected drug lords.

He rattled off four Chinese-sounding names that he said were into drug trafficking and whom they had either killed or sent to jail.

He claimed that Lacson was making the accusations against him "to cover up for his worries about our committee report on his alleged involvement in illegal drugs."

He was referring to Committee Report No. 66 submitted by the committee on public order and illegal drugs, which he chairs, the Blue Ribbon Committee chaired by Sen. Joker Arroyo, and the defense committee led by Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr.

The three panels are recommending that the charges against Lacson be further investigated by the Department of Justice. However, the Senate has yet to act on the report.

But Lacson said the recommendation has already been rendered moot and academic by the decision of the Office of the Ombudsman dismissing similar charges filed against him by former narcotics agent Mary Ong, alias Rosebud.

Reacting to this assertion of Lacson, Barbers said the Senate and the Ombudsman "are two different jurisdictions."

"We are not bound by the decisions of the Ombudsman or the DOJ. If the Senate decides to make a new recommendation and the DOJ ignores it, then that’s it," he said.

Barbers also insinuated that Lacson’s men, during the opposition senator’s time as Philippine National Police chief, were involved in the kidnapping of rich Filipino-Chinese.

"That’s not true," said Lacson. "We rescued many kidnap victims, we returned big amounts of ransom money that we recovered and we even rejected offers of reward. The Filipino-Chinese community, which extended its cooperation to us in solving kidnapping cases, is our witness." — With Jose Rodel Clapano, Paolo Romero