Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile asked Thursday opposition Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson “to come home to face’’ the double murder charges arising from the 2000 Dacer-Corbito cases.

“Unfortunately, there has been no communication from him,” Enrile said after Lacson, through a press statement, admitted Tuesday that he has left the country last January 5 to evade the imminent issuance by a Manila regional trial court of a warrant for his arrest on the twin murder cases.

Lacson placed his woes on “Mrs. (President) Arroyo and her stooge in the Department of Justice (DoJ)’’ and that he would let them have “the pleasure of seeing my life miserable and in danger’’.

The double murder raps are not bailable.

In a regular briefing at the Senate for reporters, Enrile said he recently received a letter from Lacson from abroad but did not know where it was postmarked because what he received was a piece of paper. He was apparently referring to a letter he received last Jan. 18.

The Senate said Lacson, the former Philippine National Police (PNP) director-general during the Estrada administration, could be extradited from where he is at present taking refuge if there is an extradition treaty between the Philippines and that country. Lacson could also
seek political asylum if that country approves such a request.

Although the Senate is now on a three-month election recess or even if the Senate is in session, Lacson does not enjoy immunity because the penalty of the murder cases is more than six years.

“But what I am saying is that I would not allow him to be arrested on the session (hall). I will ask law enforcers to take him outside of the session hall.

He also said he could not impose his will on any member of the Senate on what to do even if he is the Senate President.

Enrile himself was arrested at the office of then Senate President Jovito Salonga in 1990 on the controversial charge of rebellion complex with murder prepared against him by then Justice Secretary Franklin M. Drilon and served by then National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Alfredo Lim. The Supreme Court later declared that such a charge does not exist.

He said he faced the charges squarely and did not become a fugitive.

Drilon later became a Senate President while Lim also became a senator.

On Lacson becoming a fugitive, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago said that Lacson “finally accepted reality’’ and that his being thrown into the nearest jail “is a horrifying prospect”.

“Even the most tenuous of evidence to justify their own interpretation of probable cause was used against me to satisfy their political vendetta against my person. From the Jose Pidal scandal, jueteng payola, Hello Garcia election cheating controversay, even to the ZTE and the fertilizer scam, and many more abuses committed by Mr. and Mrs. Arroyo against the Filipino people, where I played the leading role in exposing, are mostly the reasons why I am being harassed no end,’’ he said in his press statement admitting that he has left the
country.

Lacson was reported hiding in Australia after leaving the country for Hong Kong on a Cathay Pacific flight. He maintains innocence on the murder cases.

As a former special assistant to Enrile who was then the justice secretary, Santiago said she saw prison inmates’ conditions at the National Bilibid where “freshman inmates are immediately beaten up just to prove who’s the boss and sometimes raped and to put a spirit
of humility in them’’.

“Supposed you are acquitted – but you’ve already been beaten up; you’ve lost several teeth;
you’ve lost an eye; or you’ve been raped; and other trials and tribulations – it’s very primitive condition.

That’s why he has not other choice in law,’’ she explained.

As a former law professor and a former trial court judge, Santiago said that “out of respect for the law, he (Lacson) should have remained (in the country) until arraignment”.

“After arraignment, he can flee to a foreign country. And if he is convicted (in absentia), let us say, then he cannot be served the warrant against him. So that would have been the ideal. But sometimes people just will not appeal at the arraignment anymore, because they’re just too afraid of the prospect. Double murder is not bailable,’’ she added.