| I SAID TO my friends that if Estrada became president, I would leave the Philippines, which I did shortly after Estrada's inauguration. I predict that if Lacson were president, people who would like to leave but could not would join the ranks of the rebels. Gras Reyes. [email protected]. December 20, 2002 ����������������������������� I HAVE A feeling that Ping's popularity has a lot to do with the unpopularity of Glorietta who has been undoing herself almost every day. While I've never expected much of her, truly she is a disappointment. Ross Tipon. [email protected]. December 20, 2002 ������������������������������ MAY 2003 get your articles read by a larger base of readers! It is great stuff and deserves a larger audience. More power to you! JayJay Calero. No email address given December 20, 2002 ������������������������������� GOD FORBID.This is not a pitch for Lacson, is it? I admire the guy for his uncanny ability of covering his tracks. And this makes him very dangerous. What is appalling is that there has been not a single Filipino who can outthink him. And Corpus was not just a dud. He's a total idiot. He looks like an idiot, speaks like and idiot and reasons like an idiot. If this is the kind of intelligence we have in the AFP, let's abolish the whole institution and give it to the tricycle drivers. They show better judgement than Corpus. Joe. [email protected]. December 22, 2002 MY REPLY. Anybody who concludes that this article is a pitch for Lacson is stupid. ����������������������������� DEAR TONY, Thank you for sharing your column with me, I enjoyed reading it. It keeps me somewhat informed of back room deals from this rather distant refuge. Please continue sending them my way. More power to you and personal regards, Ding Roces, Australia. No email address given. December 23, 2002 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |
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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Round One To Ping Lacson By Antonio C. Abaya December 4, 2002 Of course, we have always known that Sen. Panfilo �Ping� Lacson had presidential ambitions. It has been written all over his forehead even while he was still controversial chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP). In fact, in an article in the Today newspaper of December 12, 2000 (archived in the website www.tapatt.org), I wrote that PNP also stands for Ping Next President. I wrote that Lacson was the anointed successor of then President Joseph Estrada, anointed by no less than the power brokers of the Estrada imperial court: Mark Jimenez, the Chinese Mafia and the Estrada or Ejercito extended families. They all needed one of their own to be installed in Malacanang when Erap�s term ends in June 2004; otherwise, what would become of their lucrative megabucks rack�.er�.businesses? In the July 30 2000 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Lacson announced the formation of the PNP Foundation Inc., supposedly a privately funded organization meant to purchase communications equipment for the national police. To me, it was a thinly veiled vehicle to raise money for the 2004 presidential elections, especially since its target of P4 billion by 2004 was, not by coincidence, the amount deemed necessary to wage and win a successful presidential campaign, which, also not by coincidence, was/is scheduled for that year. Lacson himself announced that so far the PNP Foundation had received the following donations: P100 million from Mark Jimenez, P50 million from Lucio Tan, P40 million from the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, not by coincidence, the bankrollers of Erap�s 1998 campaign and main beneficiaries of his largesse after his election. The Inquirer also said P2 million each were received from John Gokongwei and from the Ayalas, piddling amounts which suggested that their arms were just twisted to fork over their �donations�, or else. At about the same time, Ping�s film biography, �The Ping Lacson Story�, with Rudy Fernandez in the lead role, hit the movie circuit. Its producers, a company called Millenium Productions, was/is owned by Jinggoy Estrada. This neat, seamless, tayo-tayo arrangement began to unravel in October 2000 when Gov. Chavit Singson exploded his Juetenggate Stink Bomb, jeopardizing both the Estrada presidency and Lacson�s pre-ordained and pre-approved plan to succeed him in 2004. Kwarta na, naging pinakbet pa. In December 2000, the usually unflappable but suddenly frantic Ping Lacson flew to Washington DC. The reasons given for his sudden departure were 1) to visit his family (living in California on a policeman�s salary); 2) to receive an award from an industrial security society (plausible); and 3) to receive a $26 million donation from the US House of Representatives to his PNP Foundation (highly unlikely). The speculation in Manila then was that Lacson went to Washington to sell himself to the Americans as a fast track alternative to both the embattled and soon-to-be-overthrown Estrada and his constitutional successor VP Gloria Arroyo, warning the Americans that Erap had Chinese connections that go all the way to Beijing and that Gloria was playing footsie with the communists, cleverly playing on the Americans� wariness towards the Chinese, their future strategic rivals, and hatred of the communists, their past (and vanquished) strategic rivals. But the hard sell did not work; the Americans did not buy. This was confirmed in March 2001 by an American whom I met in a dinner party who claimed he was part of the group approached by Lacson in Washington. ***** But Lacson has made quite a comeback since those uncertain days in 2000. Elected senator in the 2001 elections, he now stands poised to claim the prize in 2004 that was promised him by the now discredited powerbrokers in the Estrada imperial court, but this time around he will, like Frank Sinatra, do it �my way.� His coming out party before the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines last November 19 was remarkable, not because he formally announced his campaign for the presidency, but because he did so by deliberately antagonizing the Roman Catholic Church over the issue of artificial methods of birth control. Lacson urged the wider use of artificial methods of birth control to curb the country�s runaway population growth rate, the highest among the major economies in Southeast Asia, one of the highest in the world. Will that not provoke a strong backlash from the Catholic bishops? He apparently does not care. Said he, �If you are the leader of the country, you should be concerned with the 80 million Filipinos, not just with a particular group. What is good for 80 million Filipinos should take priority.� Bravo, Ping! If only on this issue alone, Lacson has shown himself to be unlike other Filipino politicians (for whom he has in the past expressed disgust). Knowing that the Catholic bishops would not support him anyway, whatever his position on the issue, Lacson has wisely thrown all caution to the wind and staked out a hardline position that is sure to win him points with the middle and upper classes (except members of the Opus Dei). Lacson surely has kept in mind that Juan Flavier ran for senator in 1995 openly espousing artificial methods of birth control and, despite the efforts of the Catholic bishops to demonize him, came out sixth in a field of 54, with 12 to win.. Like their counterparts in Europe and North America, the Roman Catholic middle and upper classes (except members of the Opus Dei) in the Philippines have taken positions independent of Church doctrine on the matter of birth control and are not likely to vote (or not vote) for a candidate solely on his/her position on this issue. By contrast, Lacson�s current rivals for the presidency have been acting like the typical politicians that they are. President Arroyo has studiously avoided antagonizing the Catholic bishops by gingerly dancing around the issue. Honorary Woman Raul Roco has not publicly taken any position on it at all, as if he were afraid of getting pregnant if he were to open his mouth. (It�s the other end, Raul.) Fernando Poe Jr. does not have to take any position on anything at all, as far as the masang tanga are concerned. In the first two minutes of the game, the score is Lacson 1, Arroyo 0, Roco 0, FPJ 100. ***** But Lacson faces several serious charges, including perjury, wire-tapping, murder, drug trafficking and money laundering, all of which have been left dangling in the air in typical Filipino fashion. Former Supreme Court Justice Isagani A. Cruz has written in his column that the Senate investigation of Lacson has been swept under the rug by the dainty hands of Sen. Loren Legarda, chair of the Senate committee in charge of it, who also happens to be angling to be the vice-presidential partner of Lacson. Legarda has denied Cruz� allegation, but the fact remains that that investigation has not moved an inch and Legarda�s denial has not resulted in any acceleration of it at all.. The perjury charge seems to be an open-and-shut case, yet it has not moved either. The charge of money-laundering, which was first raised by ISAFP Chief Victor Corpus in his expose of Lacson�s, Mrs. Lacson�s and Erap�s alleged dollar accounts abroad, has turned out to be a dud due to Corpus� inability to present smoking-gun evidence. EXCEPT, and this is an important �except,� the matter of Mrs. Lacson�s bank accounts with Bank of America and Wells Fargo Bank in California. As I wrote in my column of September 4, 2001, titled �Lacson�s Word against the FBI�s,� the FBI has confirmed in writing that Alice Lacson has/had two bank accounts each in BOA and Wells Fargo; and that in each bank one account has/had a �small balance�, the other account has/had a �large balance.� Why no one, not the police, not the NBI, not the Senate, not the media, not civil society, not the Church, not the communists, not even Corpus, has pursued this lead to its logical conclusion � such as requiring Lacson to present copies of the bank statements of those two accounts with �large balances,� from three years prior to the FBI�s revelation and up to the present � must make one wonder where the Filipinos were when God was distributing brains. If only to clear his name, Lacson should on his own volition present those bank statements. But, of course, he won�t. He�s one of the few whom God favored with brains. ***** The bulk of this article appears in the December 23, 2002 issue of the Philippine Weekly Graphic magazine. |
| OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to "Round One To Ping Lacson" THIS PIECE is superb, intriguing. I would like to dessiminate this to friends and acquaintances especially the "bakya" and blind supporters. More power and thanks. Bert Celera. [email protected] 124 Storms Avenue, Apt #4J Jersey City, NJ 07306 February 16, 2003 ������������������������������� |