Estrada insists on X’mas, medical leave

A day after he asked the Sandiganbayan to allow him to spend the Christmas holiday with his 98-year-old mother, jailed former President Joseph Estrada begged the anti-graft court to allow him to undergo knee replacement surgery in the United States.

Estrada, who is detained at an Army training camp in Tanay, Rizal, complained of the pain caused by his knees and multiple slipped discs, which apparently caused the 66-year-old former president to have a fall recently.

"I am compelled to appeal to your honors’ sense of compassion on account of the pain that I am enduring and experiencing. A few days ago, I tripped when my knees gave in and my forehead hit the pavement. I sustained injuries as a result and the same are still evident," Estrada told the court.

In a letter to the special Sandiganbayan division that is hearing the plunder charges against him, Estrada reiterated that it is still his "earnest desire to have my knee surgery done in the US by Dr. Christopher Mow, my surgeon of choice."

He cited the testimony of physician Antonio Calanoc who conducted a medical examination on the former movie actor and said his worsening knee condition has "progressed to the spinal column," which has developed multiple slipped discs.

The special division, composed of Justices Minita Chico-Nazario, Edilberto Sandoval and Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, has yet to rule on the deposed leader’s appeal for leave to go to the US.

But on Monday, Estrada asked the court to allow him to spend 10 days with his wheelchair-bound mother, Doña Mary Marcelo-Ejercito, who is supposedly suffering from abdominal aneurysm and Parkinson’s disease.

"At that age, the irreversible aging process continues its inexorable course. Only God knows when she will go but sadly, the odds are not in her favor. It is understandable than that President Estrada would wish to spend time with her during the holidays. After all, a mother is a mother still, the holiest thing alive," said Estrada’s lawyer Noel Malaya in asking the court to grant him a furlough from Dec. 24 to Jan. 2.

Estrada’s physician-sister Pilarica Ejercito told the court in a sworn statement that Doña Mary "has been asking for her son Joseph" and expressed her "fervent wish and desire" for the entire family to be together for Christmas as has been the custom in the Estrada family.

"Due to her fragile and delicate situation, transporting her to Tanay would be difficult and dangerous to her health. Nobody can tell what the future holds for our mother with her failing health and advanced age. The importance to us to be together with our mother this Christmas season is immeasurable," she added.

Last Oct. 24, Estrada was allowed to visit his mother at her home on No. 82 Kennedy st. in North Greenhills subdivision in San Juan, adjacent to the former president’s No. 1 Polk st. home.