Ping: Wreath an attempt to frame me

Opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson condemned yesterday the "wreath laying" at the residence of Supreme Court Associate Justice Romeo Callejo, claiming those behind the incident are the ones who want to sent him behind bars.

"What they did to Justice Callejo is already foul. This is certainly the handiwork of Jose Pidal’s dirty tricks gang who are too desperate to put me behind bars and stop me from exposing the high-level corruption in the Arroyo administration," Lacson said, referring to his accusations against First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo being the fictitious Jose Pidal in a money laundering scheme.

In a statement, Lacson said the funeral wreath left in front of Callejo’s residence last Friday was "meant to pressure the Supreme Court to immediately rule against him (Lacson) once it decides on the Kuratong Baleleng case."

Lacson claimed the people behind the incident wanted Callejo to believe he was the one who sent the funeral wreath.

"(They were) hoping that this (wreath laying incident) would convince the Supreme Court justices that their lives are in danger as long as the Kuratong Baleleng issue remains unsettled," he said.

Lacson noted that "overzealous" Philippine National Police (PNP) officials, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have already prepared to facilitate his arrest even before the Supreme Court could actually issue its final ruling on the case.

The Supreme Court has yet to issue a final ruling after Lacson filed a motion for reconsideration.

Lacson has said he was puzzled by the high tribunal’s reversal of its previous ruling in March that the case could no longer be reopened, citing the two-year prescriptive period.

He also expressed hope that the Supreme Court would correct itself and uphold the "principle of the law and its own rules."

Justice Callejo was the ponente of the Supreme Court decision on April 1 ordering the Quezon City regional trial court to proceed "with deliberate dispatch" the trial of the multiple murder case in which Lacson was indicted as one of the principal respondents.

The funeral wreath that was left in front of his residence in Quezon City Friday morning.

Authorities refused to say whether the wreath-laying incident is a move to influence the Supreme Court ruling on the motion for reconsideration filed by Lacson on the Kuratong case.

Lacson, along with Chief Superintendents Jewel Canson, Romeo Acop and Francisco Zubia, Senior Superintendents Michael Ray Aquino, Cesar Mancao III and Glenn Dumlao and 31 other police officers were indicted for the murder of the gang members on May 18, 1995. - With Evelyn Macairan