Ailing Estrada again excused from trial

Jailed former President Joseph Estrada won yesterday a fresh two-day leave from his corruption trial at the Sandiganbayan after his lawyer told the anti-graft court that the former movie actor was ill.

The court’s third division, headed by Justice Anacleto Badoy, granted Estrada’s request but required the defense panel to submit a medical certificate.

The trial resumed after Estrada left the courtroom with his son, San Juan Mayor JV Ejercito, and was escorted back by the police to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City where he has been detained.

He did not answer reporters’ questions outside the courtroom but pointed to his right eye before taking the elevator, apparently referring to an eye infection that had also caused him to miss two hearing dates last week.

This was the first hearing of the charges of plunder against Estrada since the Supreme Court, voting 10-4 with one abstention last Monday, affirmed the constitutionality of the plunder law. Estrada’s lawyers are set to file a motion for reconsideration.

The former president’s lawyers also ended their cross-examination of former Social Security System chairman and president Carlos Arellano, who had been testifying for six trial days.

Arellano, a former Estrada buddy who has since turned state witness, claims Estrada pressured him to invest the pension fund’s money in the stocks of gaming firm Belle Resources Corp., which allegedly led to some P189 million in kickbacks.

During Arellano’s cross-examination, the defense panel tried to establish that SSS rules and procedures were properly followed when the pension fund bought the stocks.

After Arellano’s testimony, former Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) president and general manager Federico Pascual was also called to testify on GSIS investments into Belle.

Through Pascual’s testimony, the prosecution hopes to establish that Pascual was similarly pressured to invest GSIS funds into the gaming firm although most stock brokerages considered the stock "speculative."

As the prosecution formally offered evidence, Estrada lawyer, former Sen. Rene Saguisag objected to the offer but the court ruled that Saguisag’s arguments were already rebutted during the consideration of the defense’s motion to quash.

In his testimony, Pascual claimed he was called to Malacañang Palace on Sept. 6, 1999 for a meeting with Estrada who allegedly "instructed" him to invest GSIS funds in Belle shares.

Pascual said he told Estrada he would look into it and that it would entail much work but the former president supposedly told him: "Sige, pag-aralan mo. Bilisan mo lang. (Okay, study it but move fast)."

A month later, on Oct. 9, 1999, Pascual said his secretary called him while he was waiting at Heathrow Airport in London and informed him that Estrada wanted to speak with him.

When he called Malacañang from a phone booth at the airport, the former president allegedly accosted him for not buying Belle shares.

But Estrada’s lawyers argued that what transpired between Estrada and Pascual was not in the nature of an "instruction" but only a "simple discussion."