Unmasking Lascanas

Batas Mauricio

IF there was anyone whose star brightly shone during the March 6 Senate hearing where former SPO3 Arthur Lascanas resumed testifying on the supposed involvement of President Duterte with the alleged Davao Death Squad (DDS) when he was still mayor, it would be Sen. Juan Victor Ejercito.

Obviously, Sen. Ejercito did a meticulous research and a thorough sleuthing on what Lascanas did after appearing for the first time before the Senate in 2016, during  which first appearance he denied vigorously both the existence of the squad, and the claims that then Mayor Duterte used the DDS to kill his critics and political opponents.

That research by Sen. Ejercito had the effect of unmasking Lascanas as a “sourgrape,” someone who did a 360-degree turn on his earlier Senate testimony out of spite and vengeance, ostensibly because all his maneuvers to enable his friends and associates to obtain financially rewarding contracts from the Duterte government, which would have given him financial rewards as well after his retirement, were all rebuffed in his face.

By Sen. Ejercito’s virtual cross-examination, he managed to compel Lascanas to admit that the first attempt of the retired policeman was to secure for himself and his partners whom Sen. Ejercito referred to as the “Davao group” a franchise to operate “small town lottery” (STL) outlets in several localities that are “juicy” (meaning, yielding so much profits).

Then, Lascanas and his friends also tried to secure contracts for the operation of a port, and a transport terminal in Davao City, and for another project whose details I could not recall as I was writing this column. Unfortunately for him and his associates, the government of President Duterte did not look with favor upon their overtures.

These revelations based on Sen. Ejercito’s questioning elicited a query from Sen. Panfilo Lacson, the chairman of the Senate committee on public order and illegal drugs which is investigating the claims of Lascana: did the former police officer get mad at President Duterte and his government as a result of the unfavorable actions on his projects, so that he is now testifying against the man he has served since the 1980s?

Expectantly, Lascanas answered “no,” but many of those who were with me who listened to his testimony last Monday almost howled in unison: “liar.” Well, whether he lied or not would be a question for the proper prosecutorial and judicial authorities to pass upon later, if and when the appropriate legal actions are undertaken against him.

At this point, however, it is clear that all of these investigations now are, to use Sen. Lacson’s word, “all against the wall”–meaning that, since the person subject of the supposed disclosures now is clothed with an impregnable immunity from suit, nothing good is ever going to come out of the inquiries.

In fact, Lacson publicly blamed on Monday the Aquino government for its failure to prosecute Duterte when he was still mayor for these alleged killings through the DDS, even if Aquino and his officials claimed they were already were in possession of testimonial and other evidence that could have been sufficient to indict and jail the then mayor. That, indeed, is a twist of fate that could only be providential, indicative of God’s will and plans!
E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com