Ping dares DOJ: File Charges
By PRIAM NEPOMUCENO, ARESTI TANGLAO and VICTOR REYES

Sen. Panfilo Lacson yesterday dared Justice Secretary Hernando Perez and the NBI to file charges against instead of misleading the public on his supposed multi-million dollar accounts.

Lacson said he would prefer being charged than being maligned on an "installment basis."

"I would welcome the charges so I can explain my side. It's better than holding a press conference every day to threaten me with charges," said Lacson in a radio interview.

He accused the DOJ and the NBI of conditioning the public's mind on his alleged accounts even as their initial statements based on an US Federal Bureau of Investigation indicated that his dollar accounts contained "far less money" than what was alleged by Col. Victor Corpus, chief of the AFP Intelligence Service.

DOJ and NBI said the accounts remained active until 2001 as shown by transactions records furnished by the FBI. One of these transactions showed a check for $50,000 paid by Lacson to a Toyota dealer in California.

Lacson has said that he never denied opening an account but was closed in 1997.

The checks, he said, covered two Toyota vans worth $50,000 last year, but this was on behalf of a "buy-and-sell" car dealer.

"The dealer told me he would remit the amount, so he asked me to order the cars. So how can I declare the two cars in my SAL when the cars were not bought in my name?" Lacson said. Perez and NBI director Reynado Wycoco have changed tack by raising the possibility of filing perjury charges against Lacson for failing to include his dollar accounts in his statement of assets and liabilities for 2001.

Lacson said the latest round of mudslinging against him is a "rehashed and modified" version of last year's "exposé" by Corpus.

"Last year it was $700 million. This year it's $200,000, then they want to tie it up with my SAL. But who can better explain the details of his SAL than the one who filed it?" he said.

"This government is trying to poison the minds of the public by interpreting a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) report. Why don't they once and for all make the report public so I can answer it point by point? It's better than letting them keep the report and interpret it to their liking," he said.

Lacson also lashed out anew at administration Senator Robert Barbers for releasing a draft committee report linking him to the kidnapping of six Chinese.

He said the administration senators took the claims of former double agent Mary "Rosebud" Ong hook, line and sinker without bothering to get his side.

He said he is contemplating filing libel charges against Perez and Wycoco for their statements on his dollar accounts which turned out to be a dud.

He would also file a libel case against a news report that he transferred $1 million from his Equitable PCIBank account in Greenhills to his alleged account in the Bank of California sometime in October and November 2000.

"But we're having reservations because how could a prosecutor recommend the filing of charges against the government's chief investigator and his big boss at the DOJ?" Lacson said.

He branded the report on the alleged transfer of $1 million as "the height of irresponsibility."

Perez admitted yesterday that Lacson had no multi-million dollar account.

"Hindi talaga milyon milyon ang deposito. Baka milyon lamang," Perez said.

He said the DOJ might not even be able to charge Lacson with money laundering because the FBI report failed to indicate if there was movement in Lacson's accounts after the law on money laundering was enacted in September last year.

"If the account still exists until today, and there is movement...then it could be covered (by money laundering). But if there is no movement of the account, then it could not be covered," he said.

He said the FBI report seemed to indicated that the accounts "could not be covered" by money laundering.

The DOJ continued to withheld release of the report, despite its earlier announcement that it would make public the report as soon as the FBI submitted it.

Perez said the DOJ wants "to reserve the right to comment on the report" in case charges are filed in court.

He said he also does not want to engage in a word war with Lacson.

"Hindi ito labanan ng kantsawan. This is a battle of evidence. I would rather rely on the evidence," he said.

Corpus said what the FBI has reported to the DOJ is just the "tip of the iceberg."

"Yan yung mga legal account...pero yung mother account, yung mga malalaking yun ang wala pa, yun ang hinahanap natin ngayon," Corpus said in a radio interview.

He challenged Lacson to make good his word that he would go to jail if it is proven that he has an existing account.

"Yung sinabi niyang pagka merong dokumento na maipapakita na meron nga siyang bank account, nagsabi na he will go straight to jail, e dapat gawin niya ngayon dahil and'yan na yung mga dokumento nagpapakita na meron siyang bank account," said Corpus.

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