‘Case vs Erap strong even without MJ testimony’

Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis Singson remains confident that "strong" evidence will lead to former President Joseph Estrada’s conviction even if former Manila congressman Mark Jimenez doesn’t testify in Estrada’s corruption trial.

In a media forum in Manila yesterday, Singson said Estrada’s former economic adviser is willing to testify and reveal what he knows about the alleged secret bank account Estrada reportedly used for money laundering under the alias Jose Velarde.

"He told me he knows the persons who deposited in that Jose Velarde account. Although this would have been essential in the case, we believe that our case is already strong," Singson told reporters.

Estrada denies accusations that he amassed billions of pesos in payoffs and stashed it in the Velarde account with Equitable PCI Bank but has admitted signing the bank documents.

Jimenez said Estrada has been lying in court. "What he should do at this moment is to pray inside his cell, reform for the better, beg forgiveness and pay for the damage he has done to many Filipinos," Jimenez said in a radio dzMM interview.

Government prosecutors said, however, that it’s too late for Jimenez to testify as a prosecution witness because they have already concluded their presentation of witnesses and evidence.

Jimenez could still testify as a rebuttal witness to refute defense arguments but he cannot present new evidence, they said, citing court procedure.

Singson said Jimenez’s testimony would bolster the prosecution’s case if he were allowed to testify.

In a recent interview, Jimenez said the former president convicted himself when he admitted he had signed the bank documents for the Velarde account.

Estrada, for his part, claimed he was not worried about Jimenez, whom he said no longer has credibility because of his conviction in the United States for fraud.

Those offenses were committed between September 1994 to March 1998. A warrant for his arrest was issued by a US court on April 1999 and the US government asked Manila to hand him over.

Jimenez fled the United States and returned to the Philippines. He helped broker several large business deals and became a friend of Estrada and then an adviser after Estrada was elected president in 1998.

Estrada was ousted in January 2001 amid massive protests over his alleged corruption and misrule. Then vice president Gloria Arroyo took over.

Jimenez fought a US extradition request in court for more than three years.

His case was seen as a crucial test of an extradition treaty signed by US and Philippine officials in 1996 to help the two countries fight terrorism, drug trafficking and other cross-border crimes.

While fighting extradition, Jimenez was elected to the House of Representatives in May 2001.

But he was stripped of office in March 2003 by a House panel for electoral fraud after it found him guilty of vote-buying and unqualified to run in the 2001 polls.

On Dec. 17, 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that Jimenez must be placed under arrest during the duration of an extradition case being heard by a lower court.

The landmark Supreme Court ruling stated that anyone sought for extradition should be detained to prevent the Philippines from becoming a haven of fugitives.

It gave Jimenez the option of avoiding Philippine detention by voluntarily traveling to the United States and posting bail there.

Jimenez accused the Arroyo administration of pressuring the Supreme Court to hand down the ruling after he accused then justice secretary Hernando Perez in November 2002 of trying to extort $2 million from him.

Jimenez left for the United States on Dec. 26, 2002, under FBI escort to face criminal charges in Florida.

US federal prosecutors said Jimenez made about $41,500 in illegal contributions and caused false information to be submitted to the Federal Election Commission.

Jimenez built up a fortune running a computer components distribution business in the United States and Latin America after emigrating from the Philippines.

Jimenez used money from his Miami company and a closely related company to reimburse employees for illegal donations to Clinton and other Democrats. He moved back to the Philippines in 1998 after Clinton was caught up in a series of fund-raising scandals.

Estrada was elected by a landslide in 1998, but accusations of graft and corruption hounded his presidency.

An impeachment trial against him was aborted in January 2001, and he was then forced out of office by a military-backed popular uprising.

He has denied as politically motivated the charges in the five-year-old trial that he amassed about P4 billion from illegal gambling payoffs, tax kickbacks and commissions, as well as a perjury charge for allegedly underreporting his assets in 1999.

Estrada insisted that the charges against him were manufactured by his political opponents.

He said members of society’s elite, some generals, former President Fidel Ramos — Estrada’s predecessor — and late Manila archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin and some bishops "could not accept" his overwhelming poll victory in 1998.

Testifying earlier in court, Estrada denied charges that he laundered millions of pesos in the Jose Velarde account but admitted that he signed the bank documents.

Estrada claimed that his friend Jose Dichaves owned the account.