Anti-graft group files another perjury rap vs Estr

Another perjury charge was filed against deposed President Joseph Estrada yesterday for allegedly faking his statement of assets and liabilities (SAL) in his first year in office.

The watchdog group Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) filed the complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman, adding one more crime in the growing list of alleged wrongdoings of the fallen leader.

In a five-page brief, the VACC said Estrada misdeclared his net worth when he reported it to be only P33.4 million. A person’s net worth is determined by subtracting his liabilities from his declared assets.

The group said Estrada should have declared P85.5 million.

"The declaration in his 1998 SAL is false since as of December 1998 he already had P57.1 million more or less cash on hand and in three banks, and had business interest and financial connections in at least 25 corporations," the VACC said.

Estrada, a former movie actor who rose to become the country’s 13th president in 1998, is detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center on charges of perjury and plunder. Perjury is a crime punishable by imprisonment while plunder carries the death penalty.

The VACC added that Estrada could also be held liable for violating RA 6713 or the Code of Conduct for Government Officials for failing to file his SAL for the year 2000. He was tried for impeachment late last year and was ousted by a popular revolt in January.

The anti-graft group noted that the charge it filed against the former president is "separate and distinct" from the ones filed by other parties in the Sandiganbayan.

Estrada declared in 1998 that he was only worth P33.4 million, with assets worth P45.3 million and liabilities of P12.9 million. He only named two real properties with a total worth of P9 million – a P4-million apartment and lot in Quezon City and his San Juan residence worth P5 million.

He said in his SAL that he had P5 million deposited in a bank, P1.9 million invested in securities, P15.3 million in other investments, P12.9 million in receivables, P700,000 in furniture and fixtures and only P1.5 million in motor vehicles.

He also cited only three business interests, namely in JELP Real Estate Development Corp., the movie outfit J.E. Inc., and the Feluisa Development Corp., a company he and his wife, former First Lady now Sen. Luisa "Loi" Ejercito, founded.

But the VACC said that as of Dec. 31, 1998, Estrada already had P44.3 million deposited in Keppel Bank, more than P12 million in Security Bank and P50,000 in Asia United Bank.

The group also named at least 25 companies that Estrada allegedly owns in whole or in part. The companies are involved in various business activities, including movie making, food manufacturing, agriculture, real estate and gambling.

"The said act of the respondent (Estrada) of making and filing his 1998 SAL, a statement under oath, knowing that the content of which is false, is a clear and blatant violation of the law," the VACC said.

Ombudsman Aniano Desierto said his office will evaluate the VACC’s charges and would come out with recommendations today. He said the new perjury charge could be combined with the one his office earlier filed with the Sandiganbayan.

Meanwhile, Estrada refused to acknowledge the Sandiganbayan’s decision setting a pre-trial of his plunder case on Sept. 13.

Estrada’s lawyer Rene Saguisag said the anti-graft court’s unilateral setting of the pre-trial date "disregarded the right of the accused to be given a draft and a period to comment on the same."

"This is done in a lighter cases or modest contracts. This is a capital penalty case. It is not a trivial matter either to spend again hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ money only to end up with no one signing," Saguisag lamented.

Saguisag earlier filed an opposition to the Sandiganbayan’s decision to start the plunder trial of Estrada on Oct. 1., saying time is too short for him and other lawyers of the former president to prepare a decent defense.

Prosecutor Antonio Manzano, however, said Estrada’s refusal to sign the Sandiganbayan’s pre-trial order was simply a "dilatory tactic."

"We are all set for the presentation of our first witness on Oct. 1, the first witness whose testimony will be the most fatal and damaging to Estrada. They (Estrada lawyers) cannot do anything except to delay what had been agreed upon," he said. – With Jose Rodel Clapano