Estrada lawyers question perjury case procedure

Lawyers of jailed former President Joseph Estrada accused the prosecution yesterday of not conducting a preliminary investigation on the charge of perjury it filed against their client before the Sandiganbayan.

Sen. Rene Saguisag, lead counsel for the disgraced leader, said the move by government lawyers to amend the charge sheet was proof that the prosecution had not established probable cause that Estrada misdeclared his assets in an official document.

The prosecution on Wednesday asked the anti-graft court to restore the first charge sheet that it filed before the Sandiganbayan.

Government lawyers made the move after the anti-graft court prompted the prosecution to modify the charge sheet by removing the abbreviation "e.g." (exempli gratia) which means "for example."

The controversial abbreviation was placed before the five corporations in which Estrada allegedly had undeclared holdings and the Sandiganbayan had held that examples should not be alleged in the charge sheet but rather specifics.

The court’s first division said that allowing examples to be alleged in the charge sheet would allow the prosecution to link the accused to countless corporations although there was no probable cause.

The positions of both sides in the restoration of the amended charge sheet are among the issues that are expected to be resolved during the pre-trial conference set for Aug. 2.