COMING straight from former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself, I wonder how Filipinos will react to her story that she wanted to retain then General Panfilo ‘Ping’ Lacson as chief of the Philippine National Police following the ouster of President Joseph Estrada in February 2001.

Lacson, the PNP chief from November 16, 1999 to February 16, 2001resigned as the country’s top cop following the so-called EDSA 2 which catapulted GMA to power for nine years. It was under Gen. Lacson when the PNP started an honest-to-goodness internal cleansing program while going all-out against all forms of criminality and illegal activities specifically ‘jueteng.’

It was the political will of the future Senator and now presidential candidate to boot out ‘kotong’ cops and stop graft and corruption in the police force which endeared him to jeepney, taxi and bus drivers, the ‘tinderos and tinderas’ in our palengkes, the ordinary Pinoys and of course, the good cops in our country. Sad to say, he remains behind in all presidential surveys, all being topped by former Senator Bongbong Marcos Jr.

Here’s an excerpt from her recently launched memoir entitled ‘Deus Ex Machina.’ “In the wake of EDSA in 1986, my father had warned that it was necessary for President Cory Aquino to finish her term because to be deposed in a countercoup would mean the end of democracy in the Philippines. The same could now be said about my presidency. Thus, I began by reaching out to the other side.”

“That EDSA weekend, I confirmed to media that I might retain Ping Lacson as Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, but civil society was appealed at the thought. I offered an ambassadorship to Lacson but he would have none of it.”

“During the 2010 elections, Lacson won the 10th out of the 12 Senate seats, and we discussed our political reconciliation. But our talks collapsed due to the incident involving whistleblower “Ador Mawanay”-later revealed as Antonio Luis Marquez-who fed AFP intelligence chief Victor Navarro Corpus information on foreign bank accounts allegedly owned by Ping Lacson.”

“The information that was made public could not be substantiated. I was told that years later, Corpus apologized for the incident. During those toxic times of intrigue, allegations in affidavits and counter-allegations in counter- counter-affidavits, dirty tricks, cell phone monitoring and spying and whatnot, the principal players on both sides of the political war, whether administration or opposition, often had in their possession raw or outright fake information, and as a result truth often fell by the wayside.”

“I can only say that there was no deliberate attempt to use Mamanay to spread fake information about Lacson. If Victor Corpus felt compelled to apologize to Lacson, it may diminish Vic’s reputation as an intelligence chief, but it enhances the luster of his reputation for being a man of integrity, an officer, and a gentleman.

Sadly, the result of the whole affair is that Ping Lacson became and enemy instead of an ally.”

The former President mentioned the ‘civil society’ as those who protested her statement she would retain Ping Lacson as PNP chief. Were those people from the ‘civil society’ purely against Lacson’s strong anti-jueteng stance? Who are they? There was also no mention of the military and police officials who supported the anti-Estrada protest actions simply because they are against Lacson and his good governance policies.

I covered the unfolding events at Camp Crame at the height of EDSA 2 and I would say that a number of upperclassmen and even classmates from the Philippine Military Academy of Lacson who would later become President Macapagal-Arroyo’s security advisers and chiefs of her armed services are all anti-Lacson and would not want to see him as their PNP chief under an Arroyo presidency.

Besides, would Gen. Lacson accept such an offer from Macapagal-Arroyo, if there were any at all. I really doubt he would, considering the fact that he would be surrounded by officers who really wanted to replace him in the first place, like the late Gen. Rey Berroya and his other upperclassmen and even classmates who jockeyed for the top PNP post.

The former president’s memoirs merely bolstered the claim of Sen. Lacson that he became a victim of political persecution during the Macapagal-Arroyo presidency. In the first place, Mrs. Arroyo admitted that the claim that Lacson managed to stash hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bank accounts, the money coming from his alleged involvement in criminal activities when he was still the PNP chief ‘could not be substantiated.’

Both Corpus and the national scammer known as ‘Ador Mawanay’ apologized to Ping. Mawanay even recanted his fabricated claims against Lacson as Corpus, a PMA upperclassman of Ping apologized to the latter in national television as the charges he and the fake whistleblower known as Mawanay made against the former PNP chief were all found to be baseless.

The presidential candidate said ‘late is always better than never’ when asked to comment on Macapagal-Arroyo’s book. “”For nine long years, under her regime, all I had been hoping and praying for was to get back my dignity and honor,” Lacson said. He added that he had long forgiven the former president.

“Whether or not she was sincere and truthful in saying that there was no deliberate attempt to spread fake information about my person is no longer that important to me since I have already forgiven her a long time ago as I did to all those who maligned and besmirched my reputation,” the senator said.

“If it’s any consolation, she taught me never to unjustly treat anybody knowing first hand how it is to be at the receiving end of such malevolent persecution by somebody in a position of authority and power,” he added.

Sen. Lacson also gave Mrs. Arroyo credit for having the “decency and courage to admit that she publicly and unjustly accused me of various crimes based on false information.”