Thursday, September 13, 2007 Seares: The ‘honest plunderer’ By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
IS FORMER president Joseph Estrada an “honest plunderer”? That text mail spread a few minutes after the Sandiganbayan yesterday found Erap not guilty of perjury but guilty of plunder.
He didn’t lie, as the acquittal of perjury showed. He stole, as the conviction of plunder said.
Can one steal without lying? The anti-graft court seemed to think Erap could pull it off, to plunder and still be honest.
Right? Wrong, as a lawyer would love to explain in not less than one billable hour. No space for all that here but, in sum, the case for perjury was separate from the case for plunder and perjury was not essential to the plunder charge.
‘Knowingly’
Perjury couldn’t stick on Erap as he alleged he didn’t know he had other properties not included in his SAL, or statement of assets and liabilities. An accountant prepared the papers. Erap didn’t lie, not “knowingly,” which the perjury law requires.
Good for Erap and other public officials who entrust their SAL to assistants. Bad for the fight against corruption, which the SAL strives to push.
With that loophole big enough for a violator to dance through, who is the SAL perjurer they can throw into jail?
No one. All it needs is to allege and prove that someone else lied, not the public official whose signature on the document is supposed to swear to its truth.
But maybe Sandiganbayan throw in the perjury acquittal to cushion the plunder conviction’s blow.
But hey, if the finding of guilty is upheld by the Supreme Court and Erap keeps rejecting presidential pardon, being called “honest plunderer” offers small comfort.
