2 WITNESSES AT ERAP PERJURY TRIAL TODAY: The Sandiganbayan Special Division
will hear for the first time today the perjury case against deposed president
Joseph Estrada in which he is accused of lying about his 1998 statement of
assets liabilities and net worth (SALN).
The special prosecution panel is expected to present two witnesses, Gerardo
Avendano and Salvador Serrano.
Avendano is Clerk III from the office of the Overall Deputy Ombudsman, while
Serrano is from the Security Bank Center.
Estrada allegedly lied under oath when he stated in his 1998 SALN that he
had only P37.39 million in total assets, including P5.04 million "cash on
hand and in banks."
The information against him stated that Estrada had failed to mention the
P57.11 million he kept in three banks — P44.27 million in Keppel Bank, P12.29
million in Security Bank and P548,121 in Asia United Bank.
Estrada refused to enter any plea last month, prompting the court to enter
a "not guilty" plea for him.
The ousted leader remains firm in his refusal to participate in the proceedings
and cooperate with the lawyers assigned to him by the court.
He faces a string of criminal charges, including plunder for allegedly amassing
P4.1 billion in ill-gotten wealth during his presidency from July 1998 to
January 2001. Plunder carries the penalty of death.
Manila Times, 8 May 2002
ESTRADA GETTING FAIR TRIAL, SAY 66% IN SWS POLL: Most Filipinos continue to
think that the country’s first-ever plunder trial of a former president is
a fair one, the Social Weather Stations reported Thursday.
The SWS survey of March 2002 found that a solid majority of the population —
66 percent — thought that the anti-graft court trying deposed President Joseph
Estrada on the capital charge of plunder has been acting fairly or in a neutral
manner.
Only 27 percent said the Sandiganbayan was biased against Estrada. "This
pattern of opinion is the same for all social classes," the polling firm
noted. Even Estrada’s traditional sources of support, the D and E demographic
classes, followed the pattern.
But Estrada had a different take on the results. Reached by phone Thursday,
he said many of his supporters did not understand the legal complexities of
his case.
Public opinion on the anti-graft court’s evenhandedness has remained consistent
over the past several months. In the September 2001 survey, 66 percent of
Filipinos said the Sandiganbayan was acting fairly. The following November,
a statistically similar 64 percent said the same thing. (With 1,200 respondents,
the survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.)
SWS noted that the public was "most united" on the issue of allowing television
coverage of the historic plunder trial. Some 72 percent — about three out of
every four Filipinos — want the court to reconsider its decision banning TV
coverage. The sentiment has remained consistent since at least July 2001. Again,
the SWS noted that "public opinion is similar in all areas and social classes."
Philippines Daily Inquirer, 26 April 2002
‘ESTRADA IS NOT JOSE VELARDE’: A court-appointed counsel of Joseph Estrada
said yesterday the former president had merely acted as a representative of
the real Jose Velarde when he signed at least five documents of the Equitable
PCI Bank.
Prospero Crescini, one of the 13 counsels de officio appointed by the
Sandiganbayan special division to represent Estrada in the five criminal
cases against him, including the capital offense of plunder, said the defense
panel was able to establish yesterday that Estrada is not Jose Velarde.
Crescini, citing the testimony of lawyer Manuel Curato, first vice president
and legal services division chief of the Equitable PCI Bank, pointed out that
Estrada signed on Feb. 4, 2000 the name Jose Velarde under the printed words
"the principal(s) by" in the bank’s Investment Management Agreement (IMA).
He added that Estrada’s friend businessman Jaime Dichaves, who is the subject
of a warrant of arrest by the anti-graft court special division chaired by
Associate Justice Minita Chico-Nazario, had admitted that he owned the
multimillion-peso accounts in Equitable-PCI Bank registered under the name
Jose Velarde.
In a separate interview, Solicitor General Simeon Marcelo said Crescini’s
argument based on the testimony of Curato has not created any crack on Curato’s
claim that Estrada is Jose Velarde.
Marcelo said Estrada’s public admission in a television interview is the
prosecution’s strongest evidence to prove that Estrada is Jose Velarde and
pin him down on the illegal use of an alias.
Marcelo said that Estrada’s claim that he merely acted as a guarantor to a
loan taken out by plastics businessman William Gatchalian is another matter
that should be proven in court by the defense.
Curato said it was only after the Feb. 4 transaction with Estrada that he
learned that the Jose Velarde account was already an existing account
containing P3.23 billion.
The defense will continue its cross-examination of Curato on tomorrow.
Philippine Star, 23 April 2002
EQUITABLE VP: ESTRADA SIGNED AS JOSE VELARDE: A government star witness in
Joseph Estrada’s corruption trial testified yesterday that the ousted president
signed the name "Jose Velarde" in bank documents, an alias he used to maintain
a secret account.
"He affixed his signature in the name of Jose Velarde," Manuel Curato testified
at yesterday’s hearing at the Sandiganbayan on the charges of plunder and
illegal use of an alias against Estrada.
Curato, head of legal services at Equitable PCIBank, said he and another bank
officer, Clarissa Ocampo, had taken bank documents to Malacanang on Feb. 4, 2000,
to get Estrada’s permission to invest part of the deposits in another account.
Prosecutors allege that Estrada used the Velarde account to launder illegal
gambling kickbacks, embezzled state funds and profits from insider trading
at the stock exchange. They say the account contained P3.2 billion at one point.
The Curato testimony is a repeat of his statements at Estrada’s impeachment trial
at the Senate last year.
Curato said Estrada signed the name "Jose Velarde" at least 15 times on at least
six different bank documents at the Malacanang Guest House "not as a guarantor,
but the principal lender."
Curato said he was seated beside Ocampo, who was seated beside Estrada. Estrada
simply nodded several times as Ocampo explained the documents, which Estrada
signed in about five to 10 minutes without saying a word.
Aside from Ocampo and himself, Curato said Estrada signed the documents in the
presence then presidential chief of staff Aprodicio Laquian and Estrada’s lawyer,
Fernando Chua.
Curato said the documents were requirements for a loan being secured by Estrada’s
friend, businessman William Gatchalian, and the bank was facilitating the loan.
If that was the case, Estrada lawyer Prospero Crescini said the deposed president
did not necessarily commit anything illegal.
"There is one very important thing here. The use of letters and numbers in signing
documents is allowed in bank deposits. It is authorized and permissible. It was
not publicly used," Crescini said.
Philippine Star, 18 April 2002
