Estrada won’t enter plea anew

Former President Joseph Estrada remained defiant in court yesterday, refusing to plead to a perjury charge and suggesting the judge read the charge sheet to him in Japanese.

Asked whether he wanted the charges read to him in English or Filipino, Estrada told presiding judge Minita Chico-Nazario: "I don’t care even if it is in Japanese."

Nazario refused to be drawn into an argument and had the court clerk read the charge sheet in English. But the former president, who turns 65 next week, did not back off.

Asked to plead, he said, "As I have said I refuse to participate in the proceedings of this court. I don’t need to enter any plea."

Nazario told the clerk to enter a not guilty plea for him, the fourth time the Sandiganbayan entered this plea on behalf of Estrada on the second perjury case.

The combined refusal of Estrada not to enter any plea and the persistent effort of the court-appointed lawyers to defer the arraignment did not stop the special division chaired by Nazario from proceeding with the arraignment.

The second perjury case stemmed from Estrada’s alleged misdeclaration of his 1998 assets. Prosecutors claimed that he lied when he declared assets of P37.38 million when he actually had more than P57 million in cash in three banks alone. They also claimed he failed to declare his holdings in nine other corporations.

In an open court ruling, Nazario set the pre-trial of Estrada’s second perjury case to April 22.

Nazario also allowed Estrada to waive his appearance in the proceedings of all his cases after the ousted chief executive assured the court he will desist from attacking them.

"You honor, my co-accused in this case was allowed to waive his right to appear in court. I will not attack the court anymore without basis," Estrada said.

In seeking for the deferment of Estrada’s arraignment, former anti-graft court presiding justice Manuel Pamaran, one of the de officio counsels, said they would need enough time to confer with Estrada, saying they could not intelligently assist him on what to plea in court because of his continued non-cooperation with them.

Pamaran also said the court should allow the defense lawyers to prepare "in order to disabuse the minds of the people that this court is in a hurry to finish this case without observing due process."

In the same hearing, Pamaran submitted in court what he described as "mistakenly prepared pre-trial briefs" on Estrada’s illegal use of alias. They were prepared and submitted in court, he said, without the necessary lawyer-and-client conference.

But Associate Justice Edilberto Sandoval disagreed with Pamaran, saying that the basic element of the illegal use of alias is the use of a name not registered as his by the accused.

"We don’t need the cooperation of the accused," Sandoval argued.

Another court-appointed lawyer, Irene Jurado, said the court’s decision to pursue Estrada’s pre-trial on the illegal use of alias could create an impression that the court is "railroading the case."

This irritated Nazario, who promptly warned Jurado to refrain from using the word "railroading" in making her argument in court.

"We are trying our best. Avolid using the word railroading," Nazario said.

The prosecution panel will be presenting former Equitable-PCI Bank executive vice president Clarissa Ocampo and lawyer Manuel Curato, the bank’s legal division head, along with their other witnesses against Estrada.

It was Ocampo who told the impeachment court that she saw Estrada signing the Jose Velarde accounts on Feb. 4, 2000.