Supreme Court justices unfazed by Estrada’s antics

Supreme Court justices remain unfazed by the personal attacks hurled by jailed former President Joseph Estrada against Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., who he claimed lobbied for his post in 1998 through a businessman crony of himself.

"We are not affected, not at all," Justice Artemio Panganiban told reporters in a chance interview at the Westin Philippine Plaza, where the Filipino justices were in conference with their German counterparts.

Justice Sabino de Leon concurred: "Personally, I’m not affected. We’re not affected. I don’t think it’s affecting the Supreme Court’s integrity or capacity to rule impartially. Those who are knowledgeable don’t give too much importance to these comments of Erap."

Downplaying contempt charges, De Leon, an Estrada appointee who came from the Sandiganbayan, said, "This is not really contemptuous. I don’t think so. Anyway, I think the Chief Justice will come up with an answer to these criticisms."

Davide refused to talk to reporters, however, saying he still had a visitor to attend to. But a senior staff member of the SC’s public information office quoted him as saying, "I did not lobby (to become SC chief)," stressing that this was Davide’s statement, "nothing more, nothing less."

Estrada had accused Davide of lobbying for the SC post in 1998 through his estranged crony, businessman Lucio Tan.

Estrada, however, is not over with Davide yet. He said yesterday he will not return to the judicial process as long as Davide is chief justice.

In laying down this condition, Estrada would seem to be expressing his willingness to return to the judicial process after he fired two weeks ago his battery of lawyers led by retired SC chief justice Andres Narvasa, which represented him in his plunder trial at the Sandiganbayan.

But still holding firm to his thinking that he could not get a fair trial at the anti-graft court, Estrada also rejected the services of three court-appointed lawyers — Mario Ongkiko, Rodolfo Jimenez and Irene Jurado.

"Although I respect your credibility as lawyers, just the same I do not expect to win my cases before the Sandiganbayan," Estrada said in his letter to them.

Meanwhile, an emotional Sen. Luisa Ejercito, wife of the deposed president, broke into tears yesterday toward the end of her privilege speech wherein she assailed members of the Supreme Court as well as Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin for depriving her husband of due process of law.

Her tirades came after President Arroyo warned that the executive department would take tough action against Estrada and his allies for continuously maligning the judiciary.

‘Not the system, but the ones running it’

In an exclusive interview with The STAR yesterday, Estrada explained, "I have nothing against the justice system but the ones running it."

He was contacted at his hospital suite at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City where he has been detained while undergoing trial since June last year.

The problem is Davide, who is 67 years old, will only bow out from the SC on his mandatory retirement age three years from now or in December 2005, unless he is removed through impeachment proceedings in Congress or he opts for early retirement amid reports of his plans to enter politics in 2004.

Davide was appointed to the SC by former President Corazon Aquino in 1991, after having served as chairman of the Commission on Elections.

Appearing in the pre-taped interview by the Iglesia ni Cristo-run Net 25 TV station aired on Monday, Estrada not only accused Davide of lobbying for the top opposition in SC, he also hit him for failing to exercise his authority and summon back and impose discipline on the House panel of prosecutors who walked out of the impeachment trial against him.

Davide presided with then Senate president Aquilino Pimentel Jr. at the impeachment trial in the Senate.

The House prosecutors led by then House minority leader and now Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. walked out of the impeachment trial on Jan. 17 last year when the senators voted 12-11 against the opening of the second envelope of evidence on the alleged P500 million "Jose Velarde" secret bank account of Estrada.

"Hindi bale na ako malumpo (It doesn’t matter if I get crippled). I will not go back to the justice system as long as Davide is there," Estrada said.

He was reacting to the proposal aired by Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. for him to go back to the judicial process as part of the "parliamentary diplomacy" or compromise being worked out by leaders of Congress, both pro-administration and opposition, with President Arroyo to avert a "gathering political crisis" arising from Estrada’s dismissal of his lawyers and his bid to leave abroad for knee surgery.

If he agrees to go back to the judicial process, De Venecia assured the detained former president, the government may reconsider its stand against his leaving for the United States for his operation.

"Hindi ako papayag doon (I won’t accept that). I have lost my trust and confidence (in the judicial system). Kinakahon nila ako (They’re boxing me in) ... I will not go back unless there are reforms in the justice system," Estrada demanded.

He said that he had long wanted to withdraw his defense lawyers when Davide created a "special court" to handle his plunder trial to replace the Sandiganbayan third division, headed by Justice Anacleto Badoy.

"Parang gumawa sila (SC) ng special court katulad noong kay Yamashita to convict him (It looks like a special court like that created for Yamashita to convict him)," he deplored. Japanese Imperial Army Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita was tried for his war crimes by a special court created by the United States following the defeat of Japan during World War II.

Moreover, he said, cases are raffled off and judges and justices are "not handpicked" as in the case of the Sandiganbayan special court created for him by Davide.

"In the long history of the Philippine justice system, from the lowest municipal court to the Supreme Court, cases are raffled off," he said.

Estrada enumerated graft cases previously filed at the Sandiganbayan involving billions of pesos of government funds allegedly lost to corruption, specifically, the alleged ill-gotten wealth cases against the Marcoses, the controversial PEA-Amari land deal, the celebrated Centennial Expo "scam," and the tax credit scam, but he said no special courts were created for these cases.

"Billions of anomalies came from government funds. But the jueteng, the ‘Jose Velarde’, the alias did not involve government funds. Why did they (SC) create the special court for me? Why only now? Just to convict me like Yamashita?" Estrada fumed.

Loi’s privilege speech

In her privilege speech at the Senate, Ejercito maintained that "the members of the Supreme Court, or majority of it, will always rule against my family, for it has prejudged the cases against us on that sad and shameful day of Jan. 20, 2001." On that day, Estrada was forced to leave Malacañang.

The senator said it was Davide’s wife, Virginia, who accompanied some SC justices, led by justice Artemio Panganiban, to a breakfast meeting with Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin prior to the court’s voting on the constitutionality of the Anti-Plunder Law (R.A. 7080).

She also averred that "the Supreme Court...will never admit that it might have made a mistake in going to EDSA on Jan. 20, 2001." When they did so, the senator said, the SC became a court of first and not last resort.

She assailed the government for trying to include her in the plunder case of her husband so she could be arrested and detained and of reviving the Kuratong Baleleng case that would result in the possible arrest of Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

Ejercito further lashed out at the judiciary for including her son, Jinggoy Estrada, in the plunder charges for allegedly receiving jueteng money from Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson, who was granted immunity despite his being part of jueteng operations.

Meanwhile, some 2,000 policemen from the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) will be deployed anew on Friday to secure the Sandiganbayan for the resumption of the trial of Estrada.

NCRPO chief, Director Edgar Aglipay, said they were expecting Estrada loyalists to stage protests after the former president and his son Jinggoy dismissed their lawyers. At the same time, Aglipay belittled the possibility that the pro-Erap groups would disrupt the proceedings of the Sandiganbayan.

The Philippine National Police (PNP), on the other hand, said the police will not hesitate to bodily "produce" Estrada before the Sandiganbayan on Friday if so ordered by the court.

However, a Camp Crame source claimed that without the court directive to bring Estrada to the court, the PNP will respect Estrada’s decision not to appear before it. — With reports from Marichu Villanueva, Aurea Calica, Jose Rodel Clapano, Christina Mendez Jaime Laude