A team from the Central Police District was immediately sent to protect Associate Justice Anacleto Badoy and his family, who were not hurt in a dawn fire that damaged his residence on Scout Torillo street in Barangay Laging Handa, Quezon City.
Badoy, 69, is the chairman of the anti-graft court’s third division. He had earlier set a June 27 arraignment for Estrada, who is detained at Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.
The attack on Badoy’s home came amid a massive police manhunt for key Estrada allies and supporters who allegedly instigated bloody rioting Tuesday after a failed siege on Malacañang Palace.
Sandiganbayan court sheriff Ed Urieta said Badoy, a senior justice who never had to use bodyguards before, was assigned five police escorts.
Prior to the attack, Urieta said Badoy had been receiving death threats from unspecified suspects and that his family had complained of suspicious-looking vehicles "lurking around the vicinity of the house" since the justice was assigned the plunder case last month.
"Considering the sensitivity and the media hype being given to the case of the former president, the life of Justice Badoy is now in danger," the court sheriff said.
Christine Marie Badoy-Sanchez, daughter of the Sandiganbayan justice, said she woke up at around 5 a.m. and noticed thick smoke coming from the window of the living room.
Peering outside, she saw a burning pillow atop the air-conditioning unit. She immediately ran outside and saw a taxi cab parked in front of their house.
"The cab immediately sped off upon seeing me," Badoy-Sanchez said.
She pointed out that she also noticed a heavily tinted Mitsubishi van with no license plates near the house after rioting broke out in Mendiola Tuesday.
Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said it was not clear whether the attack on Badoy’s residence was connected to the failed power grab that left at least four people dead and hundreds injured.
"We are awaiting the official police report, we cannot establish anything yet," he said.
Urieta said they are coordinating with the Philippine National Police (PNP) to discuss security measures for other Sandiganbayan justices, who reportedly have also received death threats.
CPD director Senior Superintendent Rodolfo Tor said he would assign policemen as security for the justices and their families, as well as mobile units to patrol their neighborhoods.
Urieta said he has already asked the PNP to activate a contingency plan covering the Sandiganbayan court in Quezon City, but declined to give further details, citing security reasons.
Badoy has declined to be interviewed, but sources claimed he had requested the CPD to assign Chief Inspector Bevin Fabillar, a family friend, to head the security detail.
Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Francis Garchitorena said the Mendiola riots and yesterday’s arson attack would not scare them.
"We will assume that all law enforcement agencies of the country will be here to protect us so that we will be able to render impartial decisions and our fears will be controlled," Garchitorena said.
He added that they will have to rely "on our own integrity, our own devotion to duty and in the end, our own love of country to do things right, every time in the face of threats and in the face of adversity."