Court junks Estrada bid to dismiss perjury case

The Sandiganbayan junked yesterday deposed President Joseph Estrada’s motion to dismiss the perjury charges filed against him for allegedly misdeclaring his wealth while in office.

In a 12-page ruling, presiding Justice Francis Garchitorena said Estrada’s alleged misdeclaration of his assets and liabilities in 1999 should be tried as a different case and not as part of the plunder case also filed against him.

He said the misdeclaration could not possibly be included in the plunder case because it was a means of hiding, not amassing, wealth.

"Untruthfulness in the statement of assets and liabilities (SAL) is not a necessary element for acquiring ill-gotten wealth," Garchitorena said. He noted that Estrada’s question on whether or not a government official would truthfully state his ill-gotten wealth in his annual SAL is something that needs some serious debate.

In seeking the dismissal of the perjury case, Estrada cited RA 6713, the law that sets the standards for government officials, in saying that it was the Civil Service Commission (CSC), not the Ombudsman, that should determine the correctness of his SAL.

He stressed that failure to file a truthful SAL does not automatically hold a government official liable for criminal charges. Instead, the CSC, under the law, is mandated to give such government official the opportunity to correct his SAL.

Garchitorena, however, maintained that the Ombudsman has the authority to investigate, file charges against and prosecute any government official suspected of having committed a wrongdoing.

The Sandiganbayan justice also said that Estrada’s claim of duplicity in the two cases against him "is not worthy of too much consideration."

"To begin with, there exists no incompatibility between Section 18 of RA 6713 and Section 183 of the Revised Penal Code. The former provides for an obligation to declare with truthfulness certain facts, and the latter provides the penalty for making an affidavit upon any material matter, in cases where the law so requires," he said.

Garchitorena explained further that those included in the plunder case against Estrada — such as those that accused him of receiving P545 million from illegal gambling proceeds, taking P130 million from tobacco excise taxes, receiving commissions from government deals and maintaining shares in a private corporation — were completely distinct from the entries he put in his SAL for 1999.

In his 1999 SAL, Estrada claimed a net worth, meaning his worth after his liabilities were subtracted from his assets, of only P35.8 million. He named only three companies in which he had business interests.

But the Ombudsman said Estrada lied in his SAL since he had much more than P35.8 million on hand and in banks in his first year in office.

Meanwhile, one of Estrada’s sons criticized yesterday the Sandiganbayan’s decision to revoke the temporary freedom it granted outgoing San Juan Mayor Jinggoy Estrada earlier this week.

Joseph Victor Ejercito, known as JV, said it was "unchristian and inhumane" for the court to rescind its decision granting a five-day pass to his half-brother.

The anti-graft court ordered the young Estrada to be detained again at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center after he visited his grandmother, Doña Mary Ejercito, on Tuesday night. — With Non Alquitran