“‘Deus Ex Machina’: Late is always better than never. To ex-PGMA’s credit, she has the decency and courage to admit that she publicly and unjustly accused me of various crimes based on false information. Whatever, I have already forgiven her a long time ago,” he said on his Twitter account.

“For nine long years, under her regime, all I had been hoping and praying for was to get back my dignity and honor,” he added.

In her memoir “Deus Ex Machina,” Mrs. Arroyo said she was fed false information by Antonio Luis Marquez a.k.a. Angelo “Ador” Mawanay in 2001, linking Lacson to various criminal activities.

Mawanay would eventually retract his claims, even as those who acted based on his false claims – including former top military intelligence officer Victor Corpus – apologized to Lacson. Corpus made a public apology in 2017.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer also apologized to Lacson in 2019 for publishing articles in 2001 that were “based on testimonies of persons that turned out later to be false.”

“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,” Lacson said of Mrs. Arroyo.

“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.

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