New subpoena out vs Lacson

THE Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued another subpoena against fugitive Senator Ping Lacson for the charges of kidnapping and serious illegal detention filed by former anti-narcotics agent Mary “Rosebud” Ong.

Aside from Lacson, also subject of the subpoena were other members of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), which Lacson used to head when he was still chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

The subpoena, issued by State Prosecutor George Yarte Jr. states that Lacson and the PAOCTF members should attend the preliminary investigation on March 11 at 2 p.m.

Lacson is now subject of the International Police’s manhunt in connection with the November 2000 murder of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.

The senator left the country for Hong Kong last January 5, exactly a month before Judge Myra Garcia-Fernandez of the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) issued the warrant of arrest against him.

Last Thursday, the DOJ started its preliminary hearing into the criminal charges filed by Ong through the PNP against Lacson and other members of PAOCTF.

In their sworn-affidavit, Ong and Remis Garganera of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), and six other witnesses said that some members of the now defunct PAOCTF were responsible in the abduction of two Hong Kong nationals, namely Chong Hiu Ming and Wong Kam Chong, on December 30, 1998 and March 26, 1999, respectively.

At that time, Lacson was the chief of the PAOCTF.

The PAOCTF suspected that Chong Hiu Ming and Wong Kam Chong were members of a drug syndicate.

The first victim was taken while on board a van shortly after leaving the Philippine Plaza Hotel heading for Lai Lai Hotel, while the second was abducted outside the gate of Damar Village in Quezon City while on board a Mercedes Benz van with plate number URX-928.

Named respondents in the PNP charge sheet were retired police officials Reynaldo Acop, Avelino Abogado, Cesar Aquino, Lacson, in his capacity as former head of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, lawyer Evaristo Gana, and former Police Senior Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino.

Likewise included were Police Superintendents Francisco Villaroman and Teofilo Andrada, Police Inspector Dennis Reed Tuvera, SPO3 Mabini Rosales, SPO2 Cresencio Purugganan, SPO2 Antonio Ventura, SPO3 Noel Almerino, and SPO1 Danilo Castro.

Twenty-seven witnesses, Ong and her siblings, were identified in the complaint, which pointed out that “despite the payment of huge ransoms, the two (victims) were never released to their relatives and are still missing.”

The police noted that efforts exerted by their relatives to locate them, even through the help of their lawyer, Rodolfo Tablante, and despite the intercession of then consul General Fu Binglian of the People's Republic of China, proved futile.

The most recent pertinent evidence obtained by officials was a document of affirmation by Detective Senior Superintendent To Hon Ki Bernard consisting of 43 pages sent officially by courier.

The document, the PNP said, “confirms the fact that the missing nationals were indeed the subjects of cooperation between the PNP PRO4 and the PAOCTF on the one side and the Hong Kong Narcotics Bureau on the other.”

The photocopies of the documentary evidence – which will prove that the missing Hong Kong nationals were being monitored by both the HK Narcotics Bureau and the PAOCTF headed by Lacson and PNP Narcotics Group led by Acop from October 1998 to July 1999 – could not be authenticated in the absence of a Senate ratified agreement between the Philippines and HK SAR, the PNP said in explaining early glitches in the investigations.

After the HKSAR-RP Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty was passed on October 11, 2007, the PNP received letters from Hong Kong Solicitors and Notaries of Joseph CT Lee and company requesting for the reports and the result of investigation relative to the disappearance of Wong Kam Chong.

The requested documents were intended to support the applications for presumptive death of the two mission nationals by their respective wives Lau Yuet Queena and Hong Qing Xin. (JCV/Sunnex)

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