Former President Joseph Estrada said Tuesday he will not stand in the way of Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s virulent personal attacks if it makes him happy and if he believes that “beating me to a pulp would force me to change my plans for next year’s May elections to benefit his favored presidential candidate.”

“Okay lang yung character assassination ni Sen. Lacson kung masaya siya,” Estrada told the Manila Bulletin, referring to a privilege speech delivered by Lacson Monday detailing the former president’s alleged corrupt acts while in office.

His only misgiving, Estrada added, was that, “if I am that kind of person Senator Lacson has pictured me to be, and being a man of integrity he claims to be with only the public interest in his heart, he should have offered to resign his position more than 11 years ago if he truly disagreed with me as Vice-President, and eventually hated me as his Commander-in-Chief.”

Lacson’s revelations was confirmed by Ambassador Alfonso Yuchengco regarding the latter's forced divestment of shares in telecom giant PLDT.

"I confirm the statements made by Senator Panfilo Lacson in his privilege speech relating to my 7.75 percent PTIC holdings, equivalent to 2,017,650 PLDT common shares.

“These shares were taken from me in 1998 through sheer intimidation and serious threat to my businesses, myself and my family,” Yuchengco said in a statement.

PLDT Chairman Manuel Pangilinan, through his lawyer, on the other hand denied Lacson’s allegations, claiming that the sale of the Yuchengco PLDT stocks was the result of an amicable family agreement.

Estrada also said the PLDT sale was a strictly private transaction between Pangilinan and the Yuchengco family.

Malacanang, meanwhile, said Estrada can be charged with graft and other offenses in court following the damning disclosures made by Lacson. Estrada was previously convicted for plunder but was granted clemency by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Raul Gonzalez said charging Estrada does not constitute double jeopardy since the case will be based on a different set of charges.

“There is no double jeopardy in matters which have been covered by the Sandiganbayan plunder trial,” Gonzalez said in a phone interview.

Gonzalez said it was up to Lacson to file a case against his former boss. Lacson implicated Estrada to the illegal numbers game “jueteng”, smuggling, and other criminal activities allegedly to harass his political and business enemies.

“If he goes to court and files a case against Erap that will also undergo preliminary investigation so probably Senator Lacson thinks it is safer for him to deliver it in the Senate because he enjoys parliamentary immunity,” the former justice secretary said.

Lacson had served Estrada since he was Vice-President as anti-crime czar. Later as President, Estrada appointed Lacson chief of the Philippine National Police.

Estrada said Lacson’s outburst brings to mind the legislator’s encounter with Sen. Edgardo Angara more than five years ago after Angara accused Lacson of having met First Gentleman Mike Arroyo in a posh Makati home shortly before the 2004 elections.

Lacson was an independent candidate in the May 2004 presidential elections, running against the late movie king Fernando Poe, Jr. who was the opposition’s official standard bearer.

Both Angara and Lacson belonged to the same political party, Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, but when Lacson set up his own LDP wing to run for president, an open war between the two former party-mates erupted.

Angara refused to recognize Lacson’s candidacy and later accused him of having met with Mr. Arroyo, implying that his quest for the presidency was aimed to divide the opposition, an accusation Lacson strongly rejected.

On the jueteng issue, Estrada claimed he has always advocated the legalization of jueteng to increase the paltry income of poor people involved in the illegal game.

“Even then Pagcor Chairman Alice Reyes strongly advocated to legalize jueteng as a means of propping the daily income of poor families involved by selling tickets of jueteng numbers,” Estrada said.

Asked about the possible motive of Lacson’s attack, Estrada said he can only think of one instance when he said no to the former PNP head.

“That was when I categorically denied his request allegedly for opposition party unity, for me to withdraw from my plans for next year’s May elections by reminding him that he had no right to ask for it when he himself refused not to support FPJ’s candidacy for the sake of party harmony and eventual victory in the May 2004 elections,” Estrada said.