Estrada wants to undergo ‘bathing healing’ in Caloocan

Detained former President Joseph Estrada sought permission yesterday from the Sandiganbayan to allow him to undergo a "bathing healing" or a spiritual healing session in Caloocan City.

In a three-page motion filed by his court-appointed lawyers, Estrada urged the anti-graft court to permit him to leave his detention ward at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) starting Dec. 16 and allow him to undergo bathing healing with Sister Gloria Ross of Mother Ignacia Healing Center in Bagumbong, Caloocan City.

Estrada stressed he had been scheduled to take a prayer healing session, citing the need for the spiritual renewal.

Estrada recalled undergoing the healing session with Sister Ross three weeks ago when former ambassador Ernesto Maceda and his counsel de officio Prospero Crescini accompanied the nun for a visit to his VMMC detention ward.

"Right then and there, there was a prayer healing session from which I came out uplifted and feeling better, I was so engrossed and absorbed by the experience that I disregarded my other appointments on that occasion," Estrada said.

He reasoned out that the spiritual healing process must be completed. "I was advised by Sister Gloria Ross that I need to go to the Mother Ignacia Healing Center for a few hours for the bathing healing," he said.

Crescini told the anti-graft court that the spiritual healing session will only last a few hours and promised that Estrada would return once the session is concluded.

"He (Estrada) is going on 65 with bad knees. There is absolutely no incentive for him at all to flee," Crescini pointed out as he went on reminding the anti-graft court that their previous motion to seek medical intervention had been turned down.

"Now that (former) President Estrada seeks only to be allowed to go to a place not too far away from detention, which he can leave and return to within the same day, this time to seek Divine variety, he hopes and prays to get the blessing of this court this time," Crescini said.

On the other hand, Assistant Ombudsman Dennis Villa-Ignacio did not object to the motion but clarified the spiritual healing session could also be done inside the VMMC.

Villa-Ignacio stressed that allowing Estrada to go out and participate in a spiritual session could set a precedent.

Commenting on the motion filed by Estrada, Villa-Ignacio said the former president, in effect, recognized the jurisdiction of the court over him.

During yesterday’s hearing on the plunder case, the prosecution’s 56th witness testified that a total of P797.3 million was deposited in the Jose Velarde account from August to November 1999.

Michelette Solidum Legaspi, former branch manager of the Equitable PCI bank branch at Virra Mall, Greenhills said a total of 25 checks amounting to P797,300,000 were deposited in the bank from Aug. 31 to Nov. 29, 1999.

Legaspi said at least eight checks with amounts from 5 to P10 million came from a certain Kelvin Garcia, believed to be business tycoon Lucio Tan; one from Jaime Dichaves, amounting to P20 million and the biggest was P300 million, which according to the prosecution, came from BW Resources owner Dante Tan.

Legaspi further testified that when she was still the branch manager of Equitable PCI branch in Virramall, the interbranch deposits were made and all credited to the Jose Velarde account, maintained at the bank’s Juan Luna branch in Binondo, Manila.

"The transactions made in our branch was interbranch deposits. It means that a deposit was made in our branch and they were credited to the account of Jose Velarde," she said.

Villa-Ignacio explained Legaspi’s testimony showed the amount of money amassed by Estrada in using the Jose Velarde account.

Another prosecution witness, Antonio Martinez Fortuno, operations officer of Equitable PCI Bank Pacific Star branch, earlier testified that a total of P481,325,055.65 was deposited in their branch for a period covering three months, from Oct. 19, 1999 to Jan. 24, 2000, all credited to the Jose Velarde account.

Aside from the capital offense of plunder, Estrada is also being tried for two perjury cases and illegal use of alias Jose Velarde.

The prosecution has claimed Estrada amassed more than P4 billion during his short stint as chief executive of the country.