Estrada lawyer to appeal ruling on US surgery

The lawyer of former President Joseph Estrada will appeal the Sandiganbayan resolution that barred the ousted leader from traveling to the United States for knee surgery.

Lawyer Irene Jurado, one of the court-appointed counsels de officio in the Estrada case, said she will seek the consent of other counsels before she files the motion of appeal. Other counsels de officio are former anti-graft court presiding justice Manuel Pamaran, and lawyers Prospero Crescini and Noel Malaya.

The counsels were to meet last night to discuss the motion for reconsideration, Jurado said. However, the meeting was postponed because some of them could not make it.

"If I will be the one to be followed, I think a motion for reconsideration should be filed," Jurado said in a telephone interview. "The court’s reason for denying President Estrada’s motion to undergo knee surgery in the US on the mere fear that he will not return to the country is flimsy."

However, the chief of the anti-graft court’s legal division, Renato Bocar, maintained that the court’s decision was based on Estrada’s own attitude toward the court and its handling of the case. Estrada has repeatedly said he no longer trusted the judiciary system and did not expect a fair trial.

"What do you expect from a person who has declared distrust of the judiciary system?" Bocar asked. "Definitely, he will not return to the country once he is allowed to leave for the US."

But Jurado argued that Estrada consistently pronounced his intention to return to the Philippines when he sought a court permission to travel to the United States.

"I don’t think President Estrada has plans to escape prosecution," she said. "I think his assurance that he would return to the country after the surgery in the US is enough basis for the court to reconsider its resolution and allow him to go."

Estrada’s spokesman, lawyer Raymond Fortun, has said the former president was not going to appeal the court’s resolution. However, Jurado said the counsels can still file an appeal even if Estrada does not want to.

"We will not ask him anymore about his stance on the issue," Jurado said. "We haven’t done it in the past. We don’t really know what his side is, but I heard reports over the radio that he has no plan to appeal it.""We can file a motion for reconsideration at our own initiative even without the consent of the accused," she added. Malaya, who serves as the group’s coordinator, said the group will hold a meeting some time this weekend and will finalize its decision next week.

Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Hernando Perez said yesterday he knew the address of fugitive Yolanda Ricaforte in the United States. Despite his obligation as the chief of the justice department, however, Perez insisted that he will inform the US Federal Bureau of Investigation of the whereabouts of the fugitives only on condition that the FBI assigns Filipino police officers to arrest her.

"If they ask me where Ricaforte is, then I will point out to the FBI where she is," he told reporters. "If the FBI will authorize some police officers who are Filipinos of my choice, then I’ll see to it that Ricaforte is arrested soon."

He did not say what he will do if the FBI does not ask.

Perez declined to say where the fugitive lives or how he obtained the information. However, informed sources told The STAR that Perez met with Ricaforte and her fellow fugitives Charlie "Atong" Ang and Jaime Dichaves in the United States in February.

Sources familiar with the situation said Perez wanted the three fugitives to turn witnesses in the government’s plunder case against Estrada.

Ang was arrested in November last year and his extradition hearings are ongoing. He has hired Donald Etra, the same lawyer who represented former football star O.J. Simpson in a murder trial.

The justice department began pursuing the extradition of Ang and Ricaforte in May last year.