Goodbye to all that

There are things that are just not done by governments, one of which is for a government to breach security rules and misrepresent a meeting between counterparts and without the other's knowledge and consent.

But it appears that in the case of the visit of National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Reynaldo Wycoco to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials a month ago, all caution was thrown to the wind.

From reports, not only was the meeting misrepresented. It was also filmed surreptitiously, which results in a serious breach of trust and confidence between counterparts and one which will be difficult to recover.

Yet the NBI, under Wycoco, took a big risk in leaking this out to the media, obviously to generate public perception that indeed, Malacañang's No. 1 political foe, opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson, has bank accounts in the US as charged by the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the NBI.

This is not even a criminal offense.

That the meeting was misrepresented was evident in the fact that the video shown publicly was heavily spliced, and made to appear that the meeting's focus was on the alleged Lacson's bank accounts and the millions stashed in them, when the meeting between counterparts was said to have been arranged for discussion of the computerization of the NBI, with the questions on the Lacson bank accounts posed by Wycoco as an aside.

meeting to make Lacson appear guilty, ironically, the FBI officer, Kyle Latimer, was caught on video saying that while there are some two to four bank accounts identified with Lacson, the amounts in them were nowhere near the millions of dollars being bruited about.

The truth is, if Lacson did have the millions in these accounts in the US, as claimed by the DoJ, the NBI and the military intelligence chief, Col. Victor Corpus, the banks would have had alerted the concerned agencies in the US of the huge amounts deposited by one Panfilo Lacson, which report would have been quickly passed on to the Philippine government and for which the appropriate charges against the senator would have been pressed by the Arroyo administration.

The fact alone that the question of the so-called Lacson bank accounts and the amounts in them was asked by Wycoco, and the answer given by Latimer, already serve as an indication that, up to that time, Wycoco had absolutely nothing on Lacson, despite the NBI chief's earlier statements he had obtained an FBI report attesting to the "huge" dollar deposits as shown in the bank records, the amount of which, Wycoco then claimed, was enough to charge Lacson with plunder.

And what information was Wycoco given by the FBI official, if not the information that the bank accounts Lacson held did not contain amounts anywhere the millions being claimed.

Despite this information, Wycoco, as well as Justice Secretary Hernando Perez, who really should know better, insists on creating the impression the government has the evidence from the US Justice department and the FBI that would pin down Lacson on plunder or perjury. With such "damaging evidence" against the senator, the DoJ and the NBI still have not made up their minds as to what crime they will charge Lacson with? And even more ridiculous, to this day, they are still scrounging around for evidence against Lacson, to the extent of having his alleged "mansion" as proof.

The "mansion" which was quickly discovered to be the wrong manse and therefore not belonging to the senator is also another strong indication the NBI and the DoJ cannot be trusted by their foreign counterparts to utilize whatever information they share in the manner they should be utilized — as an instrument of justice, not as an instrument of political persecution and witchhunt.

What Mrs. Arroyo, Perez and Wycoco have not realized is that in their obsession to destroy Lacson and his chances to attain the presidency in 2004, they destroyed a very important relationship they once held with the FBI and the Attorney General's Office. It is hardly information on Lacson that is important in such a relationship. There are many more important pieces of information that the Philippine government needs to keep itself on its toes, on many fronts, but which the Arroyo administration will now be virtually denied, because it has been not only found, but proved to be untrustworthy.

And this relationship has been destroyed, simply because of the administration's obsession to be rid of a political opponent.

It is no different from saying that for want of a horse, a whole kingdom was lost.

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