Ask court for your dad’s release, Palace tells Jinggoy

Senator-elect Jinggoy Estrada should go through the proper channels and not simply make demands from the Arroyo administration if he wants his father to be freed from detention.

Chief Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa Ignacio advised yesterday the younger Estrada to seek the temporary liberty of deposed President Joseph Estrada from the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court, not from President Arroyo.

The prosecutor said Jinggoy’s demand made in reaction to the President’s call for unity and reconciliation was "flawed on two grounds."

"He (ex-President Estrada) tied his own hands. Erap can’t be freed because he did not apply for bail. That’s very basic," Villa Ignacio said.

"Second, he should address that to the court and not the executive department," he pointed out.

It would be better if the neophyte lawmaker would "reconstruct" his statement urging the Arroyo administration to make true its promise to release his father, Villa Ignacio said.

The elder Estrada has been detained since April 2001 since he was ousted by a military and civilian-backed uprising, and succeeded by then Vice President Gloria Arroyo.

Incoming lawmaker Estrada is a co-accused in the plunder trial.

Villa Ignacio said he would "welcome" if the deposed leader files a petition for bail to hasten the plunder trial because the elder Estrada would be forced to present evidence.

The plunder case, he noted, has been stalled by defense lawyers for more than a year now.

The prosecutor took to task Jinggoy for calling on the executive department to free his father, saying he knew that cases are pending before the anti-graft court.

Villa Ignacio said he would excuse the 41-year-old former San Juan mayor for his unfamiliarity with bail mechanics "because he is not a lawyer."

The senator-elect demanded the release of his father Tuesday after arriving from a 12-day trip to the US on a speaking engagement with Filipino-Americans in California.

Mrs. Arroyo, he lamented, has been harping on reconciliation but remained mum on his father’s fate.

"How can she talk about reconciliation when my father is still in jail? Release him from prison first, then we will talk about reconciliation," Jinggoy was quoted as saying in a press conference upon his arrival at Manila’s international airport.

"They have always promised us that very soon my father will be out on bail," he complained.

Former President Estrada — detained at Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal — has not filed for bail unlike his son and personal lawyer Edward Serapio, another co-accused in the plunder case.