JV asks Badoy to inhibit self in Estrada trial

San Juan Mayor Joseph Victor "JV" Ejercito called yesterday on Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Anacleto Badoy Jr. to inhibit himself from hearing the plunder case against his father, deposed President Joseph Estrada, "because he has already made his judgment."

"For him (Badoy), my father is already convicted," Ejercito, 31, said in an interview. "He (Badoy) has already promised some groups of the so-called civil society to find my father guilty of the charges against him."

"If Badoy has some decency," the mayor said, then he should inhibit himself from Estrada’s plunder case.

Estrada has been detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City since May, four months after a military-backed popular revolt chased him out of the presidential palace.

He is on trial for allegedly plundering a personal fortune of $80 million, a crime punishable by death.

Ejercito noted how, of late, Badoy has apparently been overwhelmed by media attention which has prompted him to hold on to his post.

Last Thursday, an ambulance brought Badoy from the Sandiganbayan offices to an interview with TV station GMA-7. He has been confined at the University of the East-Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center due to asthma and hypertension.

Ejercito said Badoy might only be using the plunder trial of his father for future political plans.

"He used to be an assemblyman and I received reports that he wants to be a senator if given a chance. He is using my father’s case to gain popularity at the expense of others," he said.

Ejercito said Badoy, who heads the Sandiganbayan third division, wants to "ruin" the trial of his father. He refused to elaborate.

Badoy, according to Ejercito who has been attending every hearing of his father’s thrice-a-week trial at the Sandiganbayan, should be replaced by someone "credible and impartial."

Ejercito expressed more confidence in the anti-graft court’s presiding Justice Francis Garchitorena, who however has been suspended by the Supreme Court due to a backlog of cases in his sala.

"I admire him. He goes by the book. He applies full force by applying the law. I see him as a man of integrity," said Ejercito of Garchitorena, who had earlier dismissed as invalid potential evidence relating to Estrada’s related perjury case also being heard by the Sandiganbayan.

Badoy and Garchitorena have traded barbs over the handling of Estrada’s plunder case, with the former accusing the latter of trying to take over the case. Garchitorena, in turn, said Badoy was basically a laggard and publicity hound.

Badoy’s daughter has said that her father won’t be attending trial this week because the justice is on sick leave. He was again the focus of media attention recently because of some reported pilfered documents in his office.

Badoy will be turning 70, the mandatory retirement age, in October next year. –Non Alquitran