Sandiganbayan denies Erap’s request for new weekend pass

The Sandiganbayan denied yesterday the request of former President Joseph Estrada to visit his ailing mother again in her house in San Juan, following reports that he used the opportunity to meet opposition leaders.

Justices of the graft court of the Special Division observed that Estrada’s Nov. 6 visit to the house of his 102-year-old mother Doña Mary Ejercito on Kennedy St. at the posh North Greenhills subdivision was more of a political gathering than a concerned son’s visit to his sick mother.

In a one-page resolution, Justices Teresita Leonardo de Castro, Francisco Villaruz and Rodolfo Ponferrada denied the plea because Estrada’s visit to his mother was only made very recently as shown by the "activities during his last visit."

They noticed that the visit, where Estrada personally cooked his mother’s favorite pinangat na kanduli, "was not even devoted by the former president exclusively to see and care for his mother." It was also reported that lechon was even served during the occasion.

Government prosecutors led by Dennis Villa-Ignacio did not oppose Estrada’s request to visit his mother this weekend (Nov.11-12), but they suggested that the visit be limited to just one day, citing the security preparations required and the expenditure involved. "Two days is more expensive," the prosecutors complained.

Government lawyers, likewise, noticed that Estrada’s meeting with incumbent and former government officials during the previous visit was "tainted with political color."

Estrada, who remains under house arrest at his 15-hectare farm and resthouse in Tanay, Rizal, is facing plunder charges which is non-bailable.

The Sandiganbayan earlier denied his request for weekend visits to his mother, saying a motion should be filed every time he intends to visit his mother.

Estrada said he wants to "maximize the time" he could be with his mother.

Defense lawyer Rene Saguisag said his client is worried about Doña Mary, who has been "badly ill" as certified by family doctor Lorenzo Hocson. "That’s why he wants to see her on a regular basis. Her condition is deteriorating."

Hocson, director of the San Juan Medical Center, disclosed that Doña Mary is bedridden with poor food intake. "Her mental status has progressively deteriorated," he said in the medical certificate, which Saguisag attached to the motion he filed.

"Lastly, there is always the imminent risk of rupture of the abdominal aneurysm which invariably would be fatal." For the last three years, she has been in and out of the hospital because of recurrent bouts of pneumonia, the latest of which was on Aug. 11, 2006.

She also has repeated bouts of urinary tract infection. On top of these, she was diagnosed to have an abdominal aortic aneurysm.