Ducky Paredes

“Could he be making a deal with only God-knows-who to save himself from these raps in exchange for again dividing the opposition?”

by Ducky Paredes

Is Ping Lacson with the opposition? If he is, whom is he opposed to?

In the 2004 elections, the one that he was clearly opposed to was not so much Gloria Arroyo but the main opposition candidate and the only one who had any real chance to win — Fernando Poe, Jr.

Was he then doing the work of Malacanang for Malacanang? That certainly seems so since the pro-GMA Comelec, even without anyone pushing for it, created the Lacson wing of Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) by ruling that it was a different party from the FPJ wing.. If  he was not then working for Gloria, why would the Comelec do this on it own? 

Lacson knew (or should have known) he could not win but, still, he insisted on running even when it was clear that for the Iglesia‘s vote to go to the opposition, the two leading opposition bets would have to unite. Why couldn’t he “sacrifice” himself and run as FPJ’s vice president or even just quit the race altogether? He knew he had no chance at all of winning.  So, why did he prefer to stay in the game and hand the election over to GMA? With both Ping and FPJ running, the INC did the only thing that it could do—vote for Gloria.

During the canvassing of votes in  Congress, Lacson’s lawyers never objected to any single canvass. Were they also working for Gloria, helping her to win fraudulently? In fact, one never heard anything from Lacson while the cheating was going on.

Before the 2004 elections, Ping was on attack mode with the First Gentleman as his main target; yet, when the campaign began, we heard not a peep from Lacson about the FG and his shenanigans. What was that all about?

Now, he drops a bomb on President Erap. Why? Just because Erap rejected his criticism of Erap’s running to unite the opposition?

Or, is it simply because he finds himself  the primary suspect in the Dacer-Corbito murders? Could he be making a deal with only God-knows-who to save himself from these raps in exchange for again dividing the opposition? It is tough enough to unite such diverse ambitions and personalities within the opposition without a Malacanang secret agent in its ranks. Does Lacson want to further disunite those who can mount a campaign against GMA’s chosen candidate.

(Is a divided opposition actually a hindrance to winning? Only when the administration candidate cheats. A cheater can do his work only when the lead is less than a million votes. At a million or more, the cheater’s handiwork is easily discovered. For anyone other than the administration’s candidate to win, it has to be by a wide margin – the wider the better.

(Will GMA’s side cheat? If anyone will, it will be that side. No one else has the wherewithal and the mechanism for cheating. Who controls the Comelec, controls the cheating. With full automation, how this will be done is something that no one could possibly anticipate except only those in power.)

Going back to Lacson, because Senator  Jinggoy,  Erap’s son, delivered a privilege speech against him in defense of his father,  Lacson threatened to link Jinggoy to jueteng, too. Lacson claims that, as the city mayor of San Juan, Jinggoy was also receiving jueteng money. But, wasn’t Jinggoy co-accused with Erap for plunder for receiving jueteng  money; and, didn’t the Sandiganbayan find Jinggoy not guilty? So, why is Lacson bringing this up again?

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada was only reacting as any son would to accusations against one’s parent; on the other hand, Ping shows himself to be a total ingrate.

How many times has Erap helped him up? As vice president, Erap chose Ping to head a prime police post. As President, Erap made him PNP Director. Then, when he stood for Senator, whom did he go to for endorsements and party support? Erap, who else – and the help was given without any quid pro quo; nor did Erap ever ask him for anything as a sitting Senator.

Yet, now he goes out of his way to mount a savage attack against Erap in an effort to destroy the one man who ever did him any real favors. What sort of person is Ping Lacson really?

* * *

Senator Ping Lacson’s speech, delivered in the Senate, protects him from any legal action that would otherwise be used against him if he had spoken in any other place. He could actually be lying. His accusations could be made out of whole cloth (slang for total lies) and he would not be liable for libel — since his speech is protected against any legal action — or perjury since it is not sworn to. It could be pure balitang kutsero or balitang barbero and it still would not be actionable except by his  fellow senators who would be crazy to object to anything said by a fellow senator.

This is why Erap filed a libel case against Al Yuchengco (but not Senator Lacson) for Yuchengco’s story as told by Lacson that ten armed soldiers went to Al’s house in 2001 to force him to sell his company’s shares  to Manny Panginlinan. There is no way that legal action can be taken against a Senator speaking under parliamentary immunity.

Secretary Angelo Reyes, who was Chief of Staff during Erap’s presidency and just about every cabinet member have testified that President Erap never went past them in dealing with the offices and personnel of their departments; yet, Lacson says that Erap did this again and again – went past Lacson and gave direct orders to Lacson’s people.

Lacson would like us all to believe that he had nothing to do with the murders and that, instead, the President himself, went directly to Lacson’s people and gave the orders himself.

Again, even if Ping Lacson is lying, no one can touch him. On the other hand, the day that Ping has to go to court on accusations of his participation in the double murder case, then, perhaps, we will finally begin to get to the truth of what Ping Lacson is really all about.

# # # #

hvp 09.20.09

 

 

Readers who missed a column can access www.duckyparedes.com/blogs. This is updated daily. Your reactions are welcome at duckyparedes@yahoo.com