Estrada: I’m on leave, immune from suit

Ousted President Joseph Estrada said yesterday he is immune from any civil or criminal suit as he remains the country’s duly elected chief executive.

Estrada said he is a "president-on-leave" and that he had not resigned from the presidency when he left Malacañang at the height of the military-backed uprising that ousted him on Jan. 20 last year.

The 65-year-old former movie actor made the stand in a letter to the High Court of Nantes in France where former hostages Stephane Loisy and Sonia Wendling sued him for unspecified damages for the sufferings they underwent from April to August 2000 in the clutches of the Abu Sayyaf.

"Contrary to the plaintiffs’ claims, I did not resign my mandate as president of the Republic of the Philippines on 20th January 2001," the letter read.

"Due to a criminal conspiracy between high-ranking military officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, politicians, big business and the clergy, I was compelled to inform Congress of my temporary disability to perform my function as president," it said.

Estrada said he wanted to personally face the complaint against him in France but that he cannot seek proper legal representation because he is jailed at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City.

"I regret that I cannot personally attend to the case," the letter said. "To prevent me reassuming the presidency, I have been the subject of frivolous charges and have been unlawfully incarcerated by my political enemies."

Estrada said his actions and those of his subordinates – which gave rise to the lawsuit – were "acts of state" because these were done while he was sitting as president of the Philippines.

"As it were, suffice it to state that, assuming the same were accurate, said acts and the acts of my subordinates are considered as acts of state, which cannot be the basis of any suit against the head of state," read the letter.

Lawyer Raymund Fortun, Estrada’s spokesman, said extra-territorial summons could be served on a Filipino citizen under any of the following instances:

• When the action affects the personal status of the plaintiff.

• When the action relates to, or the subject of the complaint is a property within the Philippines where the accused claims a lien or interest, actual or contingent.

• When the relief demanded in the complaint seeks to exclude the defendant from any interest in property located in the country.

• When the defendant non-resident’s property has been attached within the Philippines.

Fortun said they received a copy of Loisy’s and Wendling’s complaint last March 12 and that Estrada was given 73 days within which to respond.

Copies of Estrada’s letter were furnished to Etienne Rosenthal, counsel for Loisy and Wendling, and the governor of Sabah, where the two French citizens and 19 other mostly European tourists were snatched on Easter Sunday in 2000, he added.

Meanwhile, Baby Ortaliza, Estrada’s employee whom the prosecution said deposited millions of pesos in the Jose Velarde account, said the account is owned by Jaime Dichaves.

"I will never testify for the prosecution against Sir Erap even if they will charge me because what I will tell them is just the same," she said.

"The truth (is) limited to what I know, and that truth includes the fact that Dichaves is Jose Velarde and not the former President."

Ortaliza said she had personally opened the Jose Velarde account on behalf of Dichaves with Romualdo Dy Tung, branch manager of Equitable PCI Bank on Juan Luna street in Binondo, Manila in August 1999.

"Then I went back to Corinthian Gardens (in Quezon City) and Mr. Dichaves filled up the documents and signed in front of me the signature cards," she said.

"Then I returned to Equitable PCI Bank in Binondo and submitted the documents to Mr. Tung. Dichaves deposited an initial P10 million for the account of Jose Velarde."

Ortaliza said Dichaves hired her in July 1991 through Estrada’s recommendation, to deposit money for Dichaves at Equitable PCI Bank.

"It was Sir Erap who recommended me to Mrs. Dichaves," she said. "Sir Erap told Mrs. Dichaves to help me find an additional sideline because I have six children to feed, while my husband is jobless. I worked with Mrs. Dichaves from July 1999 to Jan. 15, 2001."

Ortaliza said she started working for the Estrada family in 1996 as an "errand girl" for Dr. Luisa "Loi" Ejercito, who is now a senator, when Estrada was vice president.

"I was offered P7,000 monthly for the job," she said. "I was assigned in Polk street in North Greenhills, San Juan. I was the one paying the bills of the Estrada family. At the same time, then Vice President Joseph Estrada also hired me as his staff at the Office of the Vice President. I was detailed to lawyer Rich Ligada, chief administrator of the Office of the Vice President."

Ortaliza said she also made deposits to Estrada’s account at the San Juan branch of Security Bank.

In another development. Assistant Ombudsman Dennis Villa-Ignacio said yesterday the prosecution will ask the Sandiganbayan to forfeit the bank accounts of Estrada.

"We are considering the filing of forfeiture case against the subsisting and existing accounts relating to the former President," he said.

"The former President stated in his statement of assets and liabilities that he only has more than P5 million cash on hand and in banks. But based on the testimonies of our witnesses so far, it appears that the former President has more than 75 million cash in banks alone. The figures continue to grow as the trial on the plunder case goes on."

On the other hand, Yolanda Ricaforte, Estrada’s co-accused, was said to have opened seven special savings accounts at Equitable PCI Bank Timog-Scout Tobias, Quezon City branch, from December 1999 to June 2000, amounting to P98.6 million.

According to the branch manager’s testimony yesterday, Ricaforte deposited P70 million on Dec. 2, 1999; P10 million on Feb. 7, 2000; P2.3 million on March 29, 2000; P9.7 million on April 5, 2000; P2.5 million on April 29, 2000; P1.9 million on May 4, 2000; and P2 million on June 1, 2000.