Wednesday, September 12, 2007 Estrada verdict promulgation may be put off: lawmaker
AN OPPOSITION legislator said Wednesday’s promulgation of the decision on the plunder and perjury charges against deposed President Joseph Estrada at the Sandiganbayan Special Division may not push through at all.
An Waray party-list Representative Florencio Noel, a member of the House minority bloc, brought the idea in case the decision of the three Special Division justices is not unanimous, which he said would mean the need to create a division of five to make final judgment on the charges.
Under the division of five, Noel explained that the three justices from the Special Division will tap the services of two more fellow justices to come up with the decision.
Noel who was in touch with some legal experts said such scenario was part of an order made by the Supreme Court (SC) when it created the Sandiganbayan Special Division to try the cases of Estrada.
In a related development, Sandiganbayan chief sheriff Edgardo Urieta said the promulgation could take more than three hours.
Urieta recalled that during the promulgation of the celebrated Vizconde massacre case, the process took almost six hours.
However, Urieta clarified that process will depend on things that would be agreed upon by the prosecution and defense panels.
He said the process could be shortened if both camps would agree to just read the dispositive portion of the decision instead of reading the entire resolution.
Meanwhile, Anakpawis party-list Representative Crispin Beltran believed that the Sandiganbayan should not enforce a ban on media coverage.
He said the media should be allowed full access to the proceedings, and to deny them access “was also to deny the Filipino people their right to witness the resolution of the six-year-old trial.”
"It's highly questionable why the Sandiganbayan should prohibit the media access to Wednesday’s proceedings. This is an important event and will have inevitable impact on immediate political developments. Filipinos have a right to know, see and hear the actual proceedings, and it's a curtailment of the freedom of the press and the freedom to information for the Sandiganbayan to ban the media," he said.
"It's paranoia on the part of the Sandiganbayan as well as the Arroyo administration to think that the release of the decision on the Estrada plunder trial will spark another uprising. The former President's allies and supporters themselves have already stated their main objectives for mobilizing are to show support for Estrada, and not to issue any call to topple the government,” said the militant lawmaker. (Sunnex)
