Only in the Philippines!

In response to Sen. Jinggoy Estrada's privilege speech, Sen. Panfilo Lacson denied he was an agent of the Arroyo administration, and denied he lied in his privilege speech.

"I will never be an administration ally. To aver that I am with the administration is just farthest from the truth," he said. "I never lied in my privilege speech."

Lacson also pointed out that three people have confirmed a number of the accusations in his privilege speech on Monday:

• businessman Alfonso Yuchengco said he was pressured and harassed to sell his shares in PLDT;
• former armed forces chief and now Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said there were policy differences between Lacson and then President Estrada over the illegal numbers game, jueteng;
• former Ilocos Sur Governor Luis Singson said Estrada was involved in protecting the illegal numbers game, jueteng.

Lacson also told Estrada's son that the Dacer family has filed an amended complaint, which also accuses the former President of ordering the hit on the late publicist in November 2000.

"It is not true that I'm the only one being complained of by the Dacer family," he said.

On Jinggoy's denial of Estrada's involvement in rice smuggling, Lacson said he received word from former police agent Glen Dumlao, co-accused in the Dacer-Corbito double murder, that he personally received an order from President Estrada to release a shipment of smuggled rice.