Cuevas: Maybe Estrada was just joking

Some people crack a joke to lighten up a heated conversation, some to extricate themselves from an embarrassing situation. Yet others, like stand-up comedians, make up jokes for a living.

Was Joseph Estrada, a habitual joker, "just joking" about signing the Jose Velarde accounts to get out of a hot situation and to save, quite literally speaking, his neck?

One of Estrada’s lawyers, former Justice Secretary Serafin Cuevas, said yesterday that the fallen leader may have just been joking when he admitted on television that he signed documents involving a P500-million bank account with Equitable PCI Bank using the name Jose Velarde.

The critical documents provide the key evidence in the illegal use of an alias case filed against the former president at the Sandiganbayan.

"Let us see. I don’t know the exact language of his (Estrada) admission. So, it’s ABS-CBN pala, eh nagbibiro lang siguro (maybe he’s just joking)," Cuevas said.

Does Cuevas also mean that when you make a statement on ABS-CBN, you can only be joking?

"Just joking" may be the most astounding of the many opinions offered up by legislators and prosecutors in the case on why Estrada made that headline-grabbing admission.

Some said he made the admission out of extreme depression in the confines of his detention suite at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City.

Others said it was a brilliant legal strategy hatched by Estrada’s lawyers.

A former member of the prosecution panel in the impeachment case said it was a "declaration against interest."

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said the admission was "terrible. He (Estrada) doesn’t seem to realize the consequences of his actions."

A journalist said the former president needs surgery on his knee as much as he needs an operation on his head.

In an interview, Cuevas said that Estrada’s admission may also be a result of his "recklessness" in issuing statements to the media.

"Even in the past, he has been like that. When I was still secretary of justice, he would say that ‘I will relieve Cuevas, I will relieve Cuevas’. But he never did. He is reckless in his statement," Cuevas said.

Cuevas admitted that he and the rest of Estrada’s lawyers were surprised with the sudden admission made by Estrada, but he added that an admission of any accused to a crime may be incriminating to him, but "Estrada’s case is different."

"He signed (other) documents, but not (with) the name Jose Velarde. It does not mean that he is guilty. The prosecution has not proven anything yet," he said.

Cuevas added that even if, for the sake of argument, Estrada is Jose Velarde, the prosecution still has the burden to prove that he had used the alias (Jose Velarde) "habitually."

"But I must admit that I don’t really understand why Estrada made that. (admission) I was very much surprised," he insisted.

Question: Was Estrada also "just joking" when he called on everyone to fall on their knees and pray for the enlightenment of Jaime Cardinal Sin?