Jinggoy suffers heart attack

A son and co-accused of jailed former President Joseph Estrada in a landmark plunder case suffered a heart attack yesterday while confined in a military hospital in Quezon City.

Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada, former mayor of San Juan, complained of chest pains and difficulty in breathing, prompting doctors at the government-run Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) to order his immediate transfer to the privately owned Makati Medical Center (MMC).

Both father and son have been detained in the VMMC following their arrest on April 26 on the non-bailable capital offense of plunder.

The younger Estrada’s condition was not immediately known.

Jinggoy’s personal physician, Lorenzo Hocson, said his patient complained of shortness of breath and chest pains early yesterday afternoon.

Sources said Jinggoy joined his parents the other night in celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary.

Sandiganbayan Sheriff Edgardo Urieta said Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro gave the police a free hand in deciding whether to allow Jinggoy’s transfer to the MMC.

In July, doctors said Jinggoy should remain confined in hospital as he was suffering from hypertension and chest discomfort.

His father is also suffering from eye and leg ailments and has asked for court permission to travel to the United States to seek medical attention.

Lawyer Jose Flaminiano, legal counsel of the Estradas, attributed Jinggoy’s ailment to "unfriendly environment" at the VMMC.

Flaminiano said they will file soon a petition seeking court permission for Jinggoy to post bail.

"The court should allow Jinggoy to be temporarily brought to his house. We will ask the court to consider granting him bail for medical reasons so as not to aggravate his health conditions," the lawyer said.

He added that Jinggoy has not been convicted yet. "He is merely charged with plunder. But we are still questioning the (legality of the) charges against him, and he must be granted bail. Assuming that they committed an offense, the charges should not be plunder," Flaminiano stressed.

Cardiologist Dr. Roberto Anastacio has already testified in previous hearings of the plunder case that the VMMC is not an appropriate place of confinement for Jinggoy.

For his part, the former president has also asked the anti-graft court to grant him a pass for removal of a cataract in his eye at the Asian Eye Institute set on Dec. 16 at the Rockwell Center in Makati City.

The 64-year-old Estrada, a former movie actor, was toppled in January by a military-backed popular uprising triggered by charges of massive corruption.

The bloodless revolt came on the heels of a failed impeachment trial arising from charges that he accepted bribes from illegal gambling operators and trifled with billions of pesos in government pension funds.

State prosecutors charged that Estrada illegally amassed an estimated P4 billion during his 31-month stay in power, with most of the funds stashed in secret bank accounts both here and abroad using fictitious names.