Estrada lawyers bickering over who should represent him in court

Joseph Estrada’s two sets of lawyers are reportedly arguing over who should represent the ousted president in his plunder and other criminal cases before the Sandiganbayan.

Led by Manuel Pamaran, retired presiding justice of the anti-graft court, Estrada’s court-appointed lawyers are at the forefront right now but he does not recognize them.

The other defense team, headed by former justice secretary Serafin Cuevas, are the personal choice of Estrada but they have not appeared in court because their client refuses to take part in the proceedings.

Pamaran was said to have been angered by a statement of lawyer Raymund Fortun, Estrada’s spokesman, that the ousted president would make an "important announcement" anytime that the Cuevas-led defense panel would be taking over from them.

"What have we done?" Pamaran asked. "We have not done anything that would justify our replacement. We have done our very best in accordance with the mandate of the court."

Another defense lawyer, who refused to be named, said he was also furious because it was "highly improper" for Estrada to fire them after they have made "positive developments" in the case.

"We are doing our best to defend him while he is doing separate attacks to the country’s judicial system," he said. "And we have always been placed on the firing line."

Prospero Crescini, Pamaran’s colleague, said they were having difficulty in providing a line-up of defense witnesses because the list has remained with the team of Cuevas.

Crescini said they are "clueless" as to the identity of the 80 witnesses who, according to Fortun, are on their list.

Estrada reportedly said that he would reconvene his defense team once the special division allows them to present evidence to exonerate him from what he described as "trumped-up" charges.

On Feb. 2, 2002, Cuevas and his co-defense counsels — former senator Rene Saguisag and brothers Sigfried and Raymund Fortun — were dismissed by Estrada.

In taking that action, Estrada said he does not expect any justice from the Sandiganbayan’s special division, a court which he said was created to convict him.

Before that, Estrada was said to have admitted to broadcaster Pia Hontiveros in a television interview that he had signed as "Jose Velarde" in a trust account he had opened at Equitable PCI Bank.

Meanwhile former San Juan mayor Jinggoy Estrada, who is out on bail, visited yesterday Edward Serapio, his co-accused and his father’s former lawyer, in his detention quarters at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

After staying with Serapio for 20 minutes, Estrada motored to the Manila City Jail in Oroqueta street in Sta. Cruz to visit Ronald Lumbao, leader of the pro-Estrada People’s Movement Against Poverty (PMAP).

Lumbao is facing charges of rebellion after he was linked to the failed siege of Malacañang on May 1, 2001, which ended in the bloody dispersal of thousands of pro-Estrada demonstrators by combat troops who fired their guns into the air. –Delon Porcalla, Jaime Laude