An official of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is now mulling the possibility of asking the International Police (Interpol) to issue a “Red Notice” against Senator Panfilo Lacson after efforts to locate him proved futile.

Lacson is being hunted after a Manila City court issued an arrest warrant against him for his alleged involvement in the death of public relations officer Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November, 2000.

A Red Notice is somewhat similar to a “watch list” posted by all Interpol member countries against persons who are subject of arrest warrants.

It allows the warrant to be circulated worldwide with the request that the wanted person be arrested with a view to extradition.

NBI Anti-Terrorism Division (ATD) Chief Ricardo Diaz said that the agency might take this option after a search the other night on four places where Lacson might be hiding yielded negative results.

On Friday night, NBI agents searched for Senator Lacson at his offices at the GSIS Complex in Pasay City and at 233 San Jose Street in Ayala, Alabang. They then proceeded to search for the senator at the two residences of the latter's children in BF Homes Subdivision, Parañaque City. However, the senator was nowhere found.

As the NBI is hunting down Lacson, the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) is conducting its own search for the senator.

Senior Superintendent Benito Estipona, CIDG deputy chief for operations, said lawmen have already coordinated with the Interpol and other law enforcement agencies to help Philippine authorities in locating Lacson.

“We have also coordinated with the PCTC (Philippine Center on Transnational Crime) for the issuance of the Red Notice against Senator Lacson and asked the 180 member-countries to help locate and arrest him,” said Estipona in a phone interview.

Estipona said all regional offices of the CIDG have also been furnished with copies of the arrest warrant to maximize the operation aimed at getting Lacson and turn him over to the court handling the murder cases against him.

Last Saturday, at least three teams from the Philippine PNP-CIDG proceeded to the house of Lacson at 25 Kirishima St., BF Homes Parañaque City to serve the arrest warrant before going to the senator’s ancestral house in Imus, Cavite.

Both operations yielded negative result, which was expected as Lacson had earlier claimed that he had already left the country.

But Estipona stressed that lawmen are not discounting the possibility that the senator has already returned to the country, the reason they still went to the two houses owned by Lacson.

“We are not sure whether or not he is out of the country, although recent reports we received is that he had left,” said Estipona.
 
“We would presume that he’s there because those are his houses... We have to follow the order of the court to look for him, that’s our point in going to his houses,” he added.

“We don’t discount the possibility that he is here (in the country), it (Lacson claimed that he is out of the country) could just be a psywar,” said Felix Vargas, CIDG spokesman.

Based on the records from the Bureau of Immigration, Lacson flew to Hong Kong last January 5, with Estipona saying there is no record yet that he had already returned.

And since Lacson is nowhere found, Estipona said lawmen would just inform the senator’s relatives and households that there is an existing arrest warrant issued against him.

“We will serve the arrest warrant and if we fail to find him after that, that’s the time that we would say that he’s running away from justice,” said Estipona.

Dacer, a public relations expert, and Corbito were abducted in Makati City on November 24, 2000. Five months later, charred remains of two bodies were found at a creek in Cavite, later declared by forensic experts to be belonging to them.

In May 2001, the Department of Justice filed two counts of murder against 22 persons, including ranking police officials, in connection with the incident, with Senior Supt. Teofilo Vina, who was shot dead in Cavite in 2003, tagged as the leader of the group that perpetrated the crime.

Lacson was included in the charge sheet early last month on the basis of the revelation of Senior Supt. Cezar Mancao that it was the senator who ordered the abduction and killing while he was the PNP chief and concurrent commander of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) where most of the accused policemen were assigned.

On Friday, Judge Myra Garcia Fernandez, of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 18, issued an arrest warrant against Lacson in connection with the Dacer-Corbito murder case.

“We want to take him in our custody in order for the case filed against him to go on, to serve the ends of justice,” said Estipona.

But Estipona said it is too early at this point to offer reward money for any information that could lead to the arrest warrant, saying there is an appropriate police board that handles the reward system which depends on the level of difficulty in locating any suspect.

“The warrant of arrest has just been issued so we are not thinking of that at this moment,” he said.