Lacson may have slipped back into RP, says chief detective

MANILA — Senator Panfilo Lacson may have sneaked back to the country to evade arrest by the Interpol for his alleged role in the murders of publicist Salvador “Bubby“ Dacer and his driver, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group said Saturday.

Senior Superintendent Benito Estipona, CIDG operations chief, said the Special Operations Division of the CIDG has already sought assistance from the Interpol to locate Lacson, who flew to Hong Kong on January 5 apparently to escape prosecution.

The embattled opposition senator was ordered arrested on Friday by a Manila court for the abduction and murders of Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.

Saying it would be very difficult for Lacson to seek refuge abroad, Estipona added it was possible that the former chief of the Philippine National Police may surreptitiously returned home using “backdoor entries.”

“Although we have no record of his arrival, we are not discounting the possibility that he has returned,” he said, adding: “Using backdoor entries or other (means of transportation) to enter the country is not impossible. Everything is possible.”

Asked if it would be easier for Lacson to hide in the Philippines, Estipona answered, “It’s hard to answer that question and make any conclusion.”

“It would be much harder for him to blend in other countries,” Estipona explained.

He said Lacson’s skills as a former policeman and PNP chief may “possibly help him” elude authorities looking for him.

“In a way, his being a policeman would help him. He could have maintained contacts here and in other countries. But it would be better for him to just surrender to us,” the CIDG official said.

Estipona said he alerted all CIDG offices and sent copies of Lacson’s arrest warrant.

“We have taken precautionary measures in the event that the senator has come back. We are leaving no stones unturned to locate him,” he stressed.

He said CIDG-SOD operatives went to Lacson’s house on 25 Kirishima Street, BF Homes Subdivision shortly before noon Saturday to serve the arrest warrant.

According to Estipona, an unidentified househelp of the Lacsons received the warrant.

The CIDG agents then proceeded to the Lacson’s ancestral home in Imus, Cavite, he said.

Although the CIDG operatives were aware that the senator was already in hiding, Estipona said they still have to bring the warrant to Lacson’s known residences.

“As a law enforcement agency, we are just doing the job that the court asked us to,” Estipona told the Inquirer.

The CIDG, he said, deployed three “tracker teams” to arrest the opposition senator.

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