Lacson to reopen Jose Pidal probe

Opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson said yesterday he would initiate the reinvestigation by the Senate of the controversial "Jose Pidal" case involving First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo.

In an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel, his first since the May 10 elections, Lacson said he is now drafting a resolution seeking the reopening of the case, which the Senate in the last Congress left hanging.

He said the people deserve to know the truth behind the Jose Pidal controversy.

In August and September last year, Lacson made a three-part exposé in which he accused President Arroyo’s husband of hiding P260 million in supposedly illegal funds.

He claimed the First Gentleman laundered the funds using the false name Jose Pidal and three friends, including his personal accountant-secretary, as dummies. Arroyo has consistently denied the accusation.

Eight days after Lacson made the initial exposé, Arroyo’s brother Ignacio or Iggy came out to claim that he, not the President’s husband, was the real Jose Pidal.

Summoned by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chaired by Sen. Joker Arroyo (not related to the Arroyo brothers), Iggy asserted he was Jose Pidal and that he owned the bank accounts that Lacson claimed belonged to Jose Miguel Arroyo.

But Iggy refused to show proof that he owned those accounts or reveal any detail about any of them, claiming his right to privacy, which Senator Arroyo, supported by the President’s allies in the Senate, later upheld, stalling the Pidal probe in the process.

The Senate committee on banks, headed by Sen. Sergio Osmeña III, later launched its own investigation, but the probe was overtaken by the onset of the election campaign early this year.

Osmeña said Mrs. Arroyo’s husband "is the real Jose Pidal, and Iggy is Jose Pidal Jr."

If a new investigation were conducted, the Senate would have to invite the First Gentleman to take the witness stand anew. However, it may not be able to force the testimony of Iggy, who is now a Negros Occidental congressman, due to inter-chamber courtesy.

In the same interview, Lacson also said he has informed "presumptive" Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. about his intention to remain with the minority despite his bitter quarrel in the recent elections with his former party boss, Sen. Edgardo Angara, who heads the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino.

"I will remain with the minority. But I will not go along with them on certain issues that are against my principles, including the abolition of the congressional pork barrel," he said.

Lacson said as a "senior" opposition senator, he would want to sit in the powerful Commission on Appointments, the body that scrutinizes appointments to the Cabinet and major promotions in the military and the diplomatic service.

He expressed willingness to reconcile with Angara who, he said, "imploded" the opposition, resulting in its fragmentation.

"Tao lang tayo, baka merong magsisi or mag-make amends sa amin," he said.

Angara had dropped his LDP party mate in the search for an opposition standard-bearer in favor of movie actor Fernando Poe Jr.

On the kidnapping in Iraq of Filipino worker Angelo dela Cruz, Lacson said the President should now pull out the 50 or so Filipino soldiers in Iraq.

"She should order those troops to pack up and go home because it was wrong to send them there in the first place. That could save our kidnapped worker," he said.

He said the deployment of the troops is of little help to Iraqis and to the international campaign against terrorism. The government’s gesture would have been more meaningful if it were directed at wiping out home-grown and foreign terrorists launching their terror campaigns abroad from Philippine soil, he added.

On the matter of taxes, Lacson said he is against new tax measures.

"Our people are already heavily taxed. They cannot afford new taxes. We have to increase revenue collection by being more efficient," he said.