EDITORIAL - Dirty tricks

Any accused person, including the president of the Philippines, has a right to due process and competent legal counsel. President Estrada, the first Asian leader to be impeached, has put together arguably the best defense team that power and friendship – if not money – can obtain. His lawyers have served him well, given all the surprise bombshells dropped by the prosecution. But how far should lawyers go in defending their client?

This question was first asked when Clarissa Ocampo testified for the prosecution last Jan. 2. Ocampo, senior vice president of Equitable PCI Bank, said that on Dec. 13 last year, a week before she first faced the impeachment court, a document was drawn up in the Makati office of defense lawyer Estelito Mendoza. She said George Go, at the time chairman of Equitable PCI Bank, wanted to assign the "Jose Velarde" account in the bank to presidential crony Jaime Dichaves, who had earlier claimed ownership of the controversial account. Mendoza immediately admitted his presence in his office during the incident but maintained that he did not know what documents were being drawn up. He also said the visitors dropped by his office unannounced.

The story smacked of an attempt to cover up the Jose Velarde account, which prosecutors say belongs to the President. And Mendoza’s version of the events doesn’t wash.

A similar question was asked when the impeachment court wasted several mi-nutes last Monday in a witness’ search for a person who was not there. Caridad Rodenas, manager of the Shaw Boulevard branch of Land Bank of the Philippines, testified that three persons opened accounts for P130 million with the bank on Aug. 28, 1998 under the names Delia Rajas, Alma Alfaro and Eleuterio Tan. Rodenas said she could identify the woman who opened the Rajas account. Defense lawyer Raymond Fortun then said Rajas was in the gallery and dared Rodenas to pick her out. After going around the gallery, Rodenas returned to the witness stand and said she could not find Rajas. On orders of the impeachment court, the defense team was forced to summon Delia Rajas, who turned out to be a cook working for the mother of presidential friend Charlie "Atong" Ang. No one was surprised when Rodenas said the cook was not the woman who opened the multimillion-peso account.

This is the first time that a president is being tried for impeachable offenses. But what type of trial allows lawyers to play dirty tricks on the court? In this impeachment case, it’s not just the President on trial but the justice system. Those tasked to preserve the integrity of the judicial system should make a clear distinction between legal defense and obstruction of justice.