Saying the "state is entitled to justice," the Supreme Court of the Philippines has ordered the reopening of a multiple-murder investigation involving Senator Panfilo Lacson, who wants to be the Southeast Asian nation's next president.

The case has strong Canadian connections because some of the suspects involved in the murders and at least one witness have taken refuge in Canada, The Asian Pacific Post has learned.

In addition, Lacson, the former Philippines chief of police, is facing accusations that he, and his wife, have secret deposits in a Canadian financial institution and 16 other bank accounts in Hong Kong and the United States, totalling over US$700 million. The money, police said in a report to Philippine president Gloria Macagapacal-Arroyo is believed to have been amassed by Lacson and his cronies since 1996 from drug smuggling, money laundering operations and the kidnapping for ransom of Chinese businessmen in Manila.

Lacson claims the allegations against him and the recent Supreme court ruling is rooted in a plan to stop him from becoming president. He has denied the charges.

The Supreme Court voting 10 to four with one abstention, has ordered a lower court to proceed with the reopening of cases of the murders of suspected members of a kidnapping-for-ransom gang in 1995. Lacson, was the head of the police task force that hunted down the gang.

The case haunting Lacson started on May 17, 1995, in Paraqaque, when police rounded up 11 suspected members of the bank robbery syndicate dubbed Kuratong Baleleng.

Early the next day, all 11 men were dead in what lawmen said was a shootout on Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City.

But witnesses subsequently said the 11 were executed by a police team.

Senior police officers and witnesses filed sworn statements saying they saw policemen execute the suspects. Some of them later recanted the testimony. One of them was senior police officer Eduardo de los Reyes who was part of the police team that 'ordered to summarily execute them'.

Reyes, a key witness, moved to Canada after recanting his testimony. Government officials suspect that he may have been influenced by Lacson. In a move to prevent witness tampering after the recent ruling, Manila plans to ship out four active police colonels to Qatar to stop them from helping Lacson, the Manila Bulletin reported. Quoting sources, the paper said the trip will be passed off as a mission to eventually help rehabilitate Iraq.

The source, who requested anonymity, said the four police colonels can "influence" prominent personalities and defense witnesses to testify in favor of Lacson in the case.

The reopening of the investigation into Lacson has also put the spotlight on the Senator's connections with a secret slush fund apparently set up with the help of former president Joseph Estrada who is charged with plundering the nation.

The secret bank accounts were made public after two senior police officers who worked for Lacson fled the Philippines for Canada on July 27, 2001. The two, identified as Senior Superintendents Michael Ray Aquino and Cesar Mancao, are wanted in connection with murder, drug smuggling and helping move millions for Lacson and Estrada.

Despite orders not to be allowed out of the country, the two, using fake passports, sneaked out of the Philippines via Mactan International Airport in Cebu on a Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong en route to the United States and later Canada.

They were last seen in Las Vegas before crossing the Canadian border, said Philippine Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo.

The Philippines has asked Canada to locate the two and send them back. The two police officers, from the now defunct Philippine Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force that was headed by Lacson, are also being investigated for using navy divers to pick up heroin dropped from Chinese shipping vessels in Manila Bay and for summarily executing 'suspects', some by dropping them out of police helicopters.

The men are believed to be hiding out in either Vancouver, Toronto or Halifax where they have contacts in the local Filipino communities.

In Halifax, Aquino and others were stopped by Canadian Customs for not declaring some US$30,000 they were carrying. Unconfirmed reports state Aquino and Lacson are also being investigated by the United States Customs Service for trying to smuggle one million dollars from Canada into America via Buffalo in New York.

The entire secret account scandal is also closely connected to the BW Resources fiasco in Manila that shook up the Philippine Stock Exchange that triggered the downfall of jailed ex-president Estrada.

BW Resources, the Filipino business arm of Macau casino king Stanley Ho, another Estrada ally with strong Canadian busines interests, was found to have manipulated the stock market.

At the height of the stock scandal, a public relations executive by the name of Salvador Dacer was kidnapped by police officers and killed.

Investigators in the Philippines believe that Dacer had documents implicating a Filipino tycoon, Dante Tan and President Joseph Estrada in the massive stock manipulation. Tan was the chief executive officer of BW Resources.

Seven people, including four police officers, arrested in connection with the murder of Dacer, have said that Superintendent Aquino, Lacson's associate who is now hiding in Canada, arranged and supervised the murder. Lacson this week said his lawyers would seek a reconsideration of the Supreme court's recent ruling which has led to investigators looking into his past and his cronies.

"But as things stand now, there's a very slim chance that our motion will be granted," he said in a statement. Lacson described the Supreme court's ruling as "most lamentable," and said it "seems unthinkable" that "after voting 13 to zero" to drop all charges against him 10 months ago, the court would now reverse itself and move for the reopening of the multiple-murder case."

Lacson supporters believe the entire episode is being orchestrated by incumbents in Malacanang Palace to stop him from running for president.