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Thursday, September 27, 2007
Estrada asks anti-graft court to reverse plunder verdict
MANILA -- Former President Joseph Estrada on Wednesday asked the Sandiganbayan to reconsider its decision convicting him of plunder and sentencing him to life in prison.
Lawyer Jose Flaminiano, accompanied by Estrada spokesman and Cagayan de Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez, filed motion for reconsideration to the Estrada plunder verdict Wednesday.
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Rodriguez said Estrada opted to avail of this legal remedy because he does not intend to apply for an absolute pardon.
“This (filing of motion for reconsideration) really serves as the primary plan of action of President Estrada. His main action is to really question the conviction and not pardon,” he said.
The congressman also clarified that Estrada never asked for pardon as the same was an “initiative of Malacañang.”
Talks between the Estrada camp and Malacañang’s emissary, Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno, failed to yield results because the convicted leader wants to exhaust all legal remedies available to him, Rodriguez said.
For his part, Flaminiano hoped that the anti-graft court’s Special Division, composed of Presiding Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro and Associate Justices Francisco Villaruz Jr. and Diosdado Peralta would still change their minds.
“Only those who love themselves more than they love the truth will not be mended to change their opinions. But we believe the justices of the Sandiganbayan love the truth that’s why we dared to file this motion for reconsideration in the hope that they will study our motion, give it due consideration, and ultimately reverse their decision,” Flaminiano said.
In a motion, Estrada argued there was a mistrial in his case because he was misinformed of the charges against him.
He said that all along he knew he was charged of only one plunder offense consisting of “overt or criminal acts or similar schemes or means” but the September 12, 2007 decision of the Sandiganbayan ruled that the prosecution needs only to prove one of the four predicate crimes charged in single information (charge sheet) to convict him.
“When the accused pleaded and underwent trial, the accused was completely unaware that his burden was four times heavier than that of the prosecution. Nothing, absolutely nothing, could be more unfair and repugnant to all rules of criminal procedure,” Estrada in his motion pointed out.
In convicting Estrada, the court gave credence to the testimony of the prosecution’s star witness, former Ilocos Sur governor Luis Singson, that the former President received bi-monthly collections from jueteng from November 1998 to August 2000 in the aggregate amount of P545 million, P200 million of which was deposited to the account of Erap Muslim Youth Foundation (EMYF) with Equitable-PCI Bank (EPCIB).
The court held the “acts of collection of jueteng protection money” for Estrada “as well as the payments to him and to various persons from such sums of money with his approval or acquiescence were methodically detailed in two sets of ledgers,” one prepared by Singson and the other by the former President’s alleged jueteng auditor Yolanda Ricaforte.
It also cited the paper trail of the P200 million deposited for the EMYF that was “incontrovertibly established” as having been derived from jueteng collections through cashier’s and manager’s checks purchased by Ricaforte using the deposits in the accounts that she opened in different branches of EPCIB.
But Estrada maintained there was no evidence that there was jueteng and that he tolerated illegal gambling during his term.
In fact, he said both the prosecution and defense evidence showed that he wanted to eradicate jueteng by replacing it with Bingo-2 Balls, which under the proposal, would have been legal gambling conducted by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor).
Estrada said the finding of the court that he amassed ill-gotten wealth was not true because if there was one person guilty of plunder it should have been Singson, who was not even charged by the prosecution.
He said the prosecution’s failure to include Singson, a self-confessed chief jueteng collector, in the information has made its allegation of conspiracy nil.
Likewise, Estrada claimed he was deprived of his right to confront witnesses against him when the court admitted “hearsay evidence” that are supposed to be inadmissible under the Rules of Court.
He cited the “ledgers” prepared by Singson himself, which the court considered as evidence corroborating the former governor’s testimony.
“A ledger presented by a person other than the one who made the entries in the ledger is not admissible as evidence for being hearsay,” Estrada said.
Estrada added that the court’s acceptance of the so-called ledgers were not only against the rules of evidence but also “unusual because it was proven that Singson manufactured formal documents to show that the P200 million tobacco excise tax fully liquidated and settled.”
The court itself did not give credence to Singson’s testimony as to the alleged misappropriation of P130 million in excise taxes intended for tobacco farmers, Estrada pointed out.
Estrada also said the court erred in its finding that he obtained a commission of P189 million from the purchase of P1.88 billion worth of Belle Corp. shares by the Social Security System (SSS) and Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).
The deposed leader insisted that it was businessman Jaime Dichaves who actually received the International Exchange Bank check payable to cash in the amount of P189.7 million.
He also maintained he did not direct and instruct former SSS chairman Carlos Arellano and GSIS president Federico Pascual to buy Belle shares.
Estrada said the court also made a mistake when it admitted the “hearsay” testimony of Belle Corp. vice president Willy Ng Ocier that he was told by Dichaves that it was Estrada who imposed the condition for the payment of commission.
The Sandiganbayan last September 12 held that “the prosecution has proven beyond reasonable doubt” the commission by Estrada of the crime of plunder, which is defined and penalized under Republic Act (RA) 7080, as amended by RA 7659.
As such, the court declared the forfeiture in favor of the government the amount of P545.3 million that Estrada had allegedly received as kickback from the illegal numbers game jueteng.
It also ordered the forfeiture of P189 million representing the commission allegedly obtained by the former President from the purchase of Belle Corp. shares by SSS and GSIS and the real property consisting of a house and lot dubbed “Boracay Mansion” located in New Manila, Quezon City.
At the same time, the court permanently barred Estrada from holding any public office in the future. (Sunnex)
(September 27, 2007 issue)
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