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Sunday, March 07, 2004
Gov't defends holiday home visits for Estrada (5:01 p.m.)
MANILA -- The government defended itself Sunday against accusations that it influenced a court to allow corruption-accused former president Joseph Estrada to leave jail to visit his holiday home.
Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said there had been no government involvement in the decision of the special anti-graft court, the Sandiganbayan, to allow Estrada to visit his villa east of Manila.
"This is all under the control of the Sandiganbayan. Whatever was implemented by the jailers of our former president was within the decision, within the order of the Sandiganbayan," Bunye said.
Prosecutors insist, however, that the court would not have condoned Estrada's excursions without some form of instruction from President Arroyo's government and are threatening to start judicial proceedings.
Civilian lawyers and private prosecutors, led by the Public Interest Law Center, say Arroyo, national police chief Hermogenes Ebdane and others are "liable for the crimes of conniving with or consenting with evasion of imprisonment."
The government revealed last week that Estrada, still the de facto leader of the opposition, was allowed out of police detention in suburban Rizal province twice a week to visit the villa, complete with a swimming pool and a private chapel.
The government did not say when the visits started.
It said the privilege was only being extended out of courtesy to the former president. But critics allege the decision was intended to curry favor with Estrada's followers ahead of the May 10 presidential election.
Estrada, a former movie action star, personally picked his friend, Fernando Poe Jr., to head the opposition campaign. Poe has emerged as the strongest threat to Arroyo, who is seeking a second term in the elections.
Estrada is on trial for accusations that he plundered some $80 million during his two-year rule that was cut short by a popular uprising in 2001. The crime is a non-bailable capital offense. AFP |
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