Jinggoy wants to spend All Saints’ Day in Zambales

The son of deposed President Joseph Estrada, former San Juan mayor Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada, has asked the Sandiganbayan to allow him to visit his dead relatives in Zambales on All Saints’ Day.

It is his custom to visit his maternal grandmother, Manula Pimentel, in the town of Iba, each year on Nov. 1, Estrada said in a two-page motion filed yesterday.

He also wants to visit the grave of his father-in-law, buried at a public cemetery in San Juan, where he and his father once served as mayor.

"May I ask the permission of the honorable court to allow me to leave my detention cell, under the usual security measures, in the early morning of Nov. 1, to visit my maternal grandmother’s final resting place at Iba, Zambales, go back to Manila in the afternoon and proceed to the public cemetery of San Juan to visit and give respect to my departed father-in-law," he said in his petition.

He said he would be back at Veterans Memorial Medical Center – the Quezon City military hospital where he and his father are detained – by 10 p.m.

The anti-graft court refused in the past to allow Estrada and his father to temporarily leave detention, citing security concerns.

In June, the Sandiganbayan turned down their request to vote in their San Juan hometown for the synchronized barangay and youth elections that month.

Despite corruption allegations, Jinggoy’s father remains hugely popular among the poor, who gave the former movie action star a landslide victory in the 1998 elections.

Estrada is on trial for plunder – a non-bailable offense punishable with death – and other corruption charges.

Prosecutors accuse him of amassing millions in bribes from illegal gambling rackets when he was president. He allegedly used the proceeds to buy mansions for himself and his string of mistresses.

Estrada was ousted in January 2001 in a military-backed massive protest when his impeachment trial ended in a farce. He was replaced by then vice president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Days after he was arrested in late April last year, thousands of pro-Estrada supporters rioted and tried to storm Malacañang to reinstall him. Four rioters were killed in clashes between protesters and security forces that beat them back from the gates of the presidential palace on May 1, 2001.

Estrada denies the charges and claims that he was illegally ousted and still enjoys immunity from prosecution.

The Sandiganbayan postponed yesterday the trial for nine days until one of the justices hearing the trial, Associate Justice Edilberto Sandoval, comes back from the United States. Sandoval is visiting a brother who is suffering from a lingering illness. The trial will resume on Oct. 23.

Defense lawyer Prospero Crescini said the postponement should give them enough time to prepare their argument on Jinggoy Estrada’s pending petition for bail. The younger Estrada is one of the former president’s seven co-accused.

"It would be for the best interest of all the parties in this case and in the other Estrada’s cases that this honorable court just wait for the return of its regular member, Justice Sandoval, who is expected to be back from his leave around the third week of this month," Crescini said.

Jinggoy Estrada’s lawyers argued that their client should be granted bail because he should be excluded from the plunder charge. Under the law, a person may be charged with plunder if he is accused of illegally amassing at least P50 million.

Defense lawyers pointed out that the younger Estrada was accused of making only P2 million in bribes from illegal gambling operators.