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“Lacson may be a killer but at least he’s honest,” is a comment I regularly heard after my column appeared last week. As proof, some readers cited Panfilo Lacson’s refusal to seek pork barrel allotments during his 12 years in the Philippine Senate. Not so fast. On August 22, 2005, this article appeared in my Telltale Signs weekly column after I had obtained from the Alameda County Superior Court a civil judgment of $38,000 against Lacson and after I had served him with an Order of Examination for him to appear in Court and answer questions from me about his assets.
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Telltale Signs: The Questions for Lacson
August 22, 2005
In interviews that gave to the Daily Tribune and other Manila dailies, Sen. Panfilo Lacson called me a “liar” for telling a Balitang America TV reporter that Judge Barbara Miller had ordered a “bench warrant” issued for him.
Unfortunately for Lacson, the ABS-CBN TV reporter (Cristi Morales) was present in the Alameda County Superior Court on August 17 when Judge Miller cut off the “parliamentary immunity” arguments of Lacson’s counsel, Tiffany Dunlap, and ordered the issuance of a bench warrant for Lacson for failing to appear at the scheduled court examination of his assets. The warrant would be stayed, Judge Miller said, until September 7 when Lacson will be given a final opportunity to appear in court to answer questions from me about his assets.
Assuming Lacson will appear at his OEX hearing to lift the bench warrant, I will finally be able to ask him what I was going to ask on March 5, 2003, the date of the first Order of Examination (OEX) that I had applied for on January 13, 2003. I had personally served Lacson with the OEX at a TV talk show in Metro Manila called “Strictly Politics” on January 21, 2003.
Despite the fact that Lacson publicly declared on that television program that he was willing to go to the Superior Court in Oakland on March 5 to answer my questions under oath, Lacson did everything he could to avoid having to appear at the OEX hearing. A few days after the TV talk show, Lacson flew to the US and retained the Law Offices of Michael Cardoza to set aside the default judgment I had obtained against him.
Lacson’s lawyers – Michael Cardoza, Tiffany Dunlap, Barbara Zanger Zuniga and Kenneth Serandipio – did succeed in removing the punitive damages portion of the judgment and in delaying by 2 ½ years the day of the OEX. But he could not stop it. And once again, Lacson has publicly announced that he is willing to appear in court on September 7 to answer my questions. And once again, I believe, he will do everything he can to not have to appear at the hearing.
But if Lacson does show up in court, I am prepared to ask him the following questions about his US assets:
1. When he purchased his home at 1011 Laguna Seca Loop in Chula Vista , California on March 1, 1996, where did he get the money to buy it? When he sold it on July 20, 1999, where did he deposit the money? Did he then buy the property at 2305 Sea Island Place in Chula Vista ? What other properties did he purchase?
2. According to his April 22, 1996 Bank of America bank statement, Lacson had two bank accounts in his name at a BofA branch in Rancho Cordova , California . One was an interest checking account (17471-00188) and another was a regular savings account (17478-00046), together totaling $104,793.26. His October 23, 1996 BofA bank statement showed that his two accounts had risen to $178,544.88. In 1996, Lacson was chief of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF). What was his salary then? After he closed these two bank accounts, where did he transfer his funds to?
3. On November 13, 2000, Lacson remitted $100,000 to his wife (Alice Lacson) at her Bank of America Woodman Sherman branch account in Van Nuys , California through the Bank of New York. Two days later, on November 15, the amount of $49,980 was sent by Teresita Go to the same Bank of America account through the HSBC Bank in New York . On November 27, $149,980 was remitted to the same account also through the HSBC Bank in New York. On December 26, another $144,339.62 was remitted to the same account through the Bank of New York. Where did all this money come from and what happened to the money?
4. On January 8, 2001, Lacson’s wife had two Bank of America accounts (24306-01369 and 24301-01390) totaling $356,464.54. Where did this money come from?
5. About 4 months later, on May 8, 2001, these same accounts had $251,174.25 left. On June 5, 2001, Lacson’s wife withdrew $246, 199.25 from these two accounts. Where was the money transferred to?
6. From that Bank of America account, Lacson’s wife made two checks to purchase two Toyota Sequoia SUVs from Longo Toyota in Sacramento , one on December 3, 2000 for $50,000, and another on December 27, 2000, also for $50,000. Where are these SUVs now?
7. On December 27, 2000, Lacson’s wife formed a limited liability company called “Orient Light, LLC” which corporate papers were filed with California Secretary of State on January 8, 2001. On March 16, 2001, Lacson’s wife made two checks to “Orient Light Freight Intl, Inc.” (Nos. 106 and 107), each in the amount of $50,000. On April 6, 2001, Alice Lacson filed a “statement of information” on “Orient Light, LLC” as “President/CEO” of the limited liability company. This was filed in Sacramento on April 10, 2001. Are “Orient Light, LLC” and “Orient Light Freight Intl, Inc.” the same or are they two separate entities? Does Lacson and his wife still have an interest in these two businesses?
8. On March 14, 2001, Lacson’s wife withdrew $100,000 from her Bank of America account no. 24301-01390. Where was this money transferred to?
9. On March 8, 2001, a Wells Fargo Bank account (Account no. 201-8575365) was opened in the name of “Orient Light, LLC” with the account signatories listed as Robert Co, president, and Alice Lacson, vice-president. On April 17, 2001, the monthly statement of this bank account showed an ending balance of $200,098. What happened to the assets of this LLC? Is this LLC still operating?
I will ask Lacson these and many more questions about his assets. His lawyers may object but these questions are perfectly legitimate in an OEX.
Will Lacson appear for his OEX on September 7?
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No, he did not and I never did get to ask Lacson the questions above. A few days before he was required to appear in court and answer my questions, his lawyer, Michael Cardoza, asked me the exact amount (down to the last penny) that Lacson would have to pay to satisfy the civil judgment and not have to appear in court. After I computed the amount and told him, Cardoza sent me a cashier’s check to pay off the judgment.
But that was not the end of the story.
About six months later, a lawyer from the US Attorney’s Office in New Jersey contacted me to inform me that he was set to travel to Manila to conduct the deposition of Sen. Panfilo Lacson in connection with the criminal case they had filed against Lacson’s aide, Michael Ray Aquino. The deputy US attorney had googled “Lacson” and had come across my August 22, 2005 article about the questions I was going to ask Lacson. He asked me for copies of the documents which I was going to present to Lacson at his OEX when I was going to ask him to explain his assets. I sent them to him.
A few weeks later, the deputy US attorney called me to say he wouldn’t be needing the documents anymore because he would not be flying to Manila to depose Lacson after all. He said Michael Ray Aquino had agreed to plead guilty to the criminal charges against him if the Manila deposition of Lacson would be called off. The US Attorney’s office agreed.
Michael Ray Aquino had agreed to “fall on the sword for his emperor”. He pled guilty and was sentenced to six years in a federal penitentiary. After serving four years, Aquino was released and deported to the Philippines.
(Send comments to Rodel50@aol.com or mail them to the Law Offices of Rodel Rodis at 2429 Ocean Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94127 or call 415.334.7800).