Estrada trial postponed for the 4th time

The hearing of deposed President Joseph Estrada’s plunder trial before the Sandiganbayan has been postponed for the fourth time since June 2 this year.

The two-month delay has led government prosecutors to believe Estrada’s defense counsel that Estrada has no defense at all.

Estrada’s lawyers were supposed to present evidence for his defense during the hearings that were scheduled on June 2, 16, 30 and July 2. The Sandiganbayan set the trial on July 28.

"They (Estrada’s defense lawyers) have again succeeded in delaying the case by filing unwarranted motions," Chief Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa Ignacio told the justices of the Sandiganbayan’s special division.

He later told reporters: "I’m sure before July 28 another issue will crop up again."

Villa Ignacio said he believes Estrada has "no defense at all" from the plunder, illegal use of alias and perjury charges filed against him. He cited the dwindling number of witnesses for the defense. Estrada’s lawyers earlier said they had 80 witnesses who could absolve their client, but this was later reduced to 10.

Retired Sandiganbayan justice Manuel Pamaran, one of Estrada’s lawyers, said the motions they filed were "mere incidents" and that a denial of the anti-graft court of their right to raise valid issues is tantamount to a "violation of due process."

Presiding Justice Minita Chico-Nazario said they have no choice but to defer the scheduled presentation of evidence for the defense since they still have to resolve all the motions pending before them, since some of the motions affect the main plunder case against Estrada.

Among those remaining unresolved, defense lawyer Prospero Crescini earlier said, are defense lawyer Alan Paguia’s motion to dismiss the charges altogether and motions to cite Senior State Prosecutor Alex Padilla for contempt and for prosecutors to make a more detailed formal offer of evidence.

In a related development, defense lawyers said yesterday they are now able to prove that Padilla was a senior state prosecutor and health undersecretary at the same time. This means that he held two government positions, which is a violation of the law.

Crescini said their witnesses testified that Padilla’s stint at the Department of Justice (DOJ) was until Feb. 12 this year. The witnesses also said he never actually left his post at the Department of Health (DOH) because he merely "reassumed" this when he finished his work for the prosecution.

"He never resigned (from) the DOH," Crescini said, citing the testimony of Esperanza Carating, acting chief of the DOH personnel services, who furnished the Sandiganbayan with a copy of the memorandum of agreement between the DOJ and DOH.

The document stated that Padilla was a "seconded employee," wherein his mother agency is the DOH and he was just "seconded" to the DOJ. Carating testified that the "secondment" process is a "temporary movement of an employee from one department to another without the need of any appointment."