Lawyers vow to defend Estrada ‘at all cost’

Former Sandiganbayan presiding justice Manuel Pamaran and another court-appointed lawyer of ousted President Joseph Estrada vowed yesterday to defend their client "at all cost" as they rebuked Estrada’s spokesman for "muddling the issue" and "jeopardizing" their legal standing before the anti-graft court.

"We will not be guided by their announcements that Erap will go to Muntinlupa," said lawyer Prospero Crescini and Pamaran in a statement.

"Can you imagine if Erap is convicted because he didn’t present evidence? That will reflect on our performance," Crescini said.

Crescini said contrary to the "lies being peddled" by his spokesman, lawyer Raymund Fortun, Estrada wants to be acquitted of the plunder charges and be redeemed from the "havoc" his political career has suffered.

"We will defend (Erap) mightily at our own cost," he said. "They (Estrada’s hand-picked lawyers) cannot dictate on us what to do. We can’t work with some of them."

Fortun told reporters earlier Estrada was bent on waiving his right to present evidence in his favor in court.

Crescini said he had to apologize to the three justices of the Special Division because of the "improper remarks" of Fortun, insisting they had nothing to do with the "contemptuous" statement.

"We were slighted by the press conference because (Fortun) has no legal personality to speak of in the first place," he said. "We wash our hands off as far as whatever the de parte counsels may have stated," he told the Special Division in open court.

Crescini denied Fortun’s claim that the court-appointed lawyers and Estrada’s hand-picked counsel have not been conferring about the case.

"(Fortun) better shut up," he told reporters. "This is a court law. We are apolitical. What he has been saying in the media is just pure propaganda."