Erap says he will take stand

Ousted President Joseph Estrada will take the witness stand when the Sandiganbayan hears his petition for bail.

Former senator Rene Saguisag, Estrada’s lead counsel, assured the anti-graft court’s special division hearing the plunder case that his client will appear in court on a date to be agreed upon by the defense and prosecution.

"It was decided to call Estrada to the witness stand on the bail issue, on a date and time to be stipulated on, given the preparation required, when we also beg leave to respond orally to the opposition on the bail motion," he told the court.

On the other hand, retired Manila fiscal Jose Flaminiano, another Estrada lawyer, said their client should be released on bail without touching on the merits of the plunder case since Estrada has proven he is not a flight risk.

He noted that Estrada had refused several offers by President Arroyo for him to go into exile.

Flaminiano again cited the 1950s case of former senator Justiniano Montano who was granted bail by the Supreme Court after reversing a ruling of a Cavite court, where he had been charged with kidnapping.

The high tribunal ruled that Montano was not a flight risk, taking into consideration his stature in society, he added.

However, Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa Ignacio argued that Estrada could not be released on bail or on recognizance since the Sandiganbayan had ruled that the evidence against him is "strong."

But Saguisag said there were precedents in other countries in which heads of state undergoing trial had been released on recognizance.

"A Nicaraguan judge has ordered the house arrest of ex-president Arnoldo Aleman for corruption. (Indonesian president) Suharto was given house arrest, then city arrest," he said.

"Myanmar’s Aung San Syu Kyi and Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto were put under house arrest. So were Argentina’s Carlos Menem and Chile’s Augusto Pinochet," he added.

Saguisag said that, during martial law, his uncle, former senator Jovito Salonga, was placed by President Ferdinand Marcos under house arrest in 1980.

"On top of martial law, Marcos put him under marital law, making him a prisoner of love," he said. "President Jose Laurel was offered house arrest. Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. says he was under house arrest, too, in a dictatorship."— Delon Porcalla