Erap lawyers optimistic court will OK house arrest

Defense lawyers are hopeful that the Sandiganbayan will allow ousted President Joseph Estrada to remain at his Polk Street residence in North Greenhills Subdivision in San Juan for a month so that he could more easily attend his trial before the anti-graft court in Quezon City.

"Isang buwan lang naman (It’s just for a month) or so," said former senator Rene Saguisag, Estrada’s lead counsel.

Saguisag said it would be better for Estrada to be moved to Polk Street to make him more accessible to his lawyers and potential witnesses.

"The legal team finds it difficult to spend four to five hours on the road just to talk to the client," he said.

Retired Manila fiscal Jose Flaminiano, another Estrada lawyer, initially asked the special division to allow Estrada a 30-day stay in his Polk street home.

"We have presented more than 70 witnesses," he said. "We have to properly brief the former president. We will probably need a month."

However, Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa Ignacio said it would be better to return Estrada to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City, where he had been previously detained.

"Perhaps it would be better if he was returned to the VMMC which is also nearer to the Sandiganbayan," he said.

Villa Ignacio also noted it was Estrada’s lawyers who had sought his transfer from the VMMC, which is closer to the Sandiganbayan, to his 18-hectare estate in Tanay, Rizal.

Once moved to the VMMC, Estrada would also have easier access to medical care and would have all the security that he needs, the prosecutor added.

Meanwhile, Saguisag said the proposal to transfer Estrada to the VMMC would have a "chilling effect" by compromising his security while undergoing trial.

"There is a chilling effect (if) we will be bugged," the lawyer claimed. "During martial law, whenever we talked, pumupunta kami sa CR at tinotodo namin ang tubig para hindi kami marinig (we would go to the rest room, and we would open the faucets so our voices would be drowned by the sound of running water)."

"There is cause to be concerned," he added.

However, Villa Ignacio downplayed fears that Estrada would be subjected to electronic surveillance if moved to the VMMC.

The special division has given the prosecution until Nov. 7 to study the defense proposal to move Estrada to his Polk Street home and to file its opposition.

On the other hand, Estrada’s lawyers are mulling the possibility of calling Manila Mayor Lito Atienza as a witness for the defense.

"If they (court) will consider the views of certain political leaders, it will give us some slack," Saguisag said. "There should be some policy considerations. This is an appeal to judicial statesmanship."

Atienza was quoted by a newspaper as saying that the government should consider Estrada’s petition for bail as "the first giant step to opening the doors to national reconciliation."

The Sandiganbayan earlier rejected Estrada’s bail petition for lack of merit.

In an eight-page resolution, the special division ruled that the petition for bail could not be granted as the argument raised by his lawyers was merely "speculative."

The defense argued that Estrada should be granted bail because he is not a flight risk.

Hearing Estrada’s bail petition are Justices Teresita Leonardo de Castro, Francisco Villaruz and Diosdado Peralta.