“Sa 2022, kung magtutulong-tulong tayo, ang pagnanakaw, tapos. Ang magnanakaw, ubos. (In 2022, if we help each other, thievery will end. Thieves will be wiped out.)
Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Friday, Dec. 31 delivered this short but possibly the most powerful New Year’s message among the country’s political leaders that was capsulized in a 30-second video.
Lacson, standard bearer and chairman of Partido Reporma, pledged to Filipinos that forceful action will not only be carried out against thieves on the streets and other places, but also against corrupt government officials who have been raiding the national coffers and in the process, made the country poor.
He said the war against corruption, theft and fraud will start right away once he is voted into office following the May 9 elections.
“Ang dami pa rin magnanakaw - sa kanto, sa negosyo sa gobyerno (There are still so many thieves - on the street, in business and in the government),” stated Lacson.
The veteran lawmaker started his public service as soon as he graduated from the Philippine Military Academy and was assigned in a special police anti-crime unit. He rose to become the chief of the Philippine National Police and was credited for taking swift and strong measures against kidnaping-for-ransom, drug trade and other seroius crimes.
In vowing to act against thievery, Lacson wasn’t merely referring to petty criminals who prey on people on street corners, but to unscrupulous businessmen who evade taxes or smuggle goods -- and to corrupt government officials who continue to raid the national coffers and make life difficult for Filipinos.
Lacson has proven he has dealt with all sorts of thieves – first as a soldier and former national police chief, then as a three-term senator and even in a brief stint as rehabilitation czar in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda.
In a tweet on his @iampinglacson account, he explained: “I have practically spent my 50 years in public service chasing thieves both in the streets and in the government. There’s not much difference. They are all thieves, period. If it is my fate to catch more, with much authority and power, I will not stop until they’re finished.” In the Senate, he and his running mate, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, recently pointed the spotlight on agricultural smuggling, which not only denies the government billions in tax income but also depresses local prices of fruits and vegetables (thus cutting into local vendors’ profits) and deprives local farmers full earnings for all their hard work.
This is apart from his past advocacies on the pork barrel, his exposure of the “tara” (payoff) system at the Bureau of Customs, and his detailing of the conflict of interest between the Department of Health and the state-run Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), which he said was spending beyond its means while its higher-ups "seem to turn a blind eye" to the corruption in their system.
In 18 years as a senator, Lacson has never received his P200-million annual allocation of the pork barrel or the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), religiously returning the amount to the national treasury for a savings of P3.6 billion -- while other lawmakers have abused it to enrich themselves, as proven by the Janet Lim Napoles controversy.
And as a law enforcer, Lacson gained fame for his “no-take policy” as chief of the Philippine National Police, which ended the system of “kotong” (bribery) even for traffic cops on jeepney and bus drivers. Even as head of the Philippine Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, he was regularly returning rewards offered by families of kidnapping victims his police teams have rescued, saying they were merely doing their jobs.
As Partido Reporma chief, he has made it a point to listen to the people’s problems and find solutions to them through the party’s “Online Kumustahan” series of dialogues with local government officials and organizations across the country.
This is all part of his group’s reform agenda for the country, even after the May 2022 elections and even after Lacson steps down from the Senate in June following nearly two decades of distinguished service – rooted in his family’s belief that "What is right must be kept right; what is wrong must be set right."