‘Jinggoy needs friendly environment to recover’

A "friendly environment."

This is what detained former San Juan Mayor Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada needs, says Dr. Roberto Anastacio, chief cardiologist of the Makati Medical Center (MMC), as he asked the Sandiganbayan to allow Estrada to return to his home.

Anastacio made the pleading in an open court hearing after the prosecution panel led by Ombudsman Aniano Desierto deferred to next Tuesday the doctor’s cross-examination.

Anastacio told the anti-graft court third division chaired by Associate Justice Anacleto Badoy that Estrada’s health status is so serious that he needs a friendly environment to recuperate.

"I am appealing for the court to give proper relief to the patient (Jinggoy). There is a continuing problem of the patient based on the series (of) and most recent blood tests conducted by doctors at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center," Anastacio said.

The doctor said that the process of "myocardial injuries," an infraction of the heart, continues to compromise Estrada’s health due to the "psychological stress" he suffers every time he is returned to the VMMC.

He noted that since Aug. 20, when his patient was released from the MMC upon getting well and returned to house arrest at the VMMC, the young Estrada’s health has deteriorated.

"Even statistics showed that the kind of illness that Jinggoy has may result in sudden death," Anastacio said.

Anastacio reminded the court that as early as Aug. 8, he had strongly recommended that the former local chief executive be returned to his house immediately upon his release from the MMC.

The recommendation was coursed through a letter to Estrada’s family doctor, Manny Jocson, a general surgeon.

Citing his serious illness, Jinggoy earlier asked the anti-graft court to allow him to post bail and go home.

For his part, Desierto said that the anti-graft court should not readily accept the claim of one doctor in the necessity to grant bail or allow Jinggoy to return to his house in upscale Greenhills, San Juan.

Meanwhile, lawyers of deposed President Joseph Estrada are asking the Supreme Court to investigate the source of the leakage of a confidential draft decision on the plunder case to a broadsheet columnist perceived to be an Estrada critic.

The columnist assailed the integrity of the high tribunal in a recent column.

Following the alleged media leakage, a motion to disqualify and inhibit was filed by the government against SC Justice Santiago Kapunan, a motion described by Estrada lawyers as not only "improper at this time but ... quite surprising if not suspicious."

Estrada’s defense lawyers led by former Sen. Rene Saguisag asked that the leakage of confidential information be investigated because the incident is an assault on the integrity of the SC as an institution.

"Such an assault on the SC is far more dangerous than the character assassination directed at its members by the columnist to whom the draft resolution was fed," Saguisag said.