GMA: Let courts decide Erap’s house arrest appeal

BANGKOK, Thailand (via PLDT) — President Arroyo stood firm yesterday that the Sandiganbayan, and not she, would decide on whether to allow ousted President Joseph Estrada to be placed under "house arrest" in his home in North Greenhills, San Juan.

"We will carry out any decision of the Sandiganbayan on this matter," she said.

"We are concerned as any humanely inclined person about the health conditions of the former president, but the disposition of detention-related issue is properly left to his doctors and the court," the President said.

Last Monday, Estrada asked Sandiganbayan Justice Edilberto Sandoval to help him be allowed "temporary house arrest" in his home in North Greenhills so he could be near his 93-year-old mother, Mary Marcelo-Ejercito.

The jailed former leader personally made the request when Sandoval, along with Justices Minita Chico-Nazario and Teresita Leonardo de Castro inspected his barbed wire-enclosed detention quarters at Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal.

"I want to be near my ailing mother who is always requesting for me," he said.

However, Sandoval told Estrada he has to put his request in writing before the Sandiganbayan could act on the matter.

Deputy Presidential Spokesman Ricardo Saludo said Malacañang will not stop the Sandiganbayan or the Philippine National Police (PNP) from moving Estrada to his resort in Tanay, a few meters away from Camp Capinpin.

"The matter is between the Philippine National Police and the Office of the Ombudsman," he said. "It’s not the Palace... (who) would decide (on the issue)."

Saludo said government prosecutors handling the case against Estrada are not under Malacañang, rather they are being supervised by the Office of the Ombudsman.

"The Ombudsman is an independent body, and it is not under the Office of the President," he said.

On the other hand, PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. said he wants Estrada to be detained at Camp Capinpin.

Ebdane said the trial of Estrada should also be moved from the Sandiganbayan in Quezon City to the headquarters of the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division in Tanay.

"To be practical, it is better that he stay in Capinpin to economize on (our) forces and expenses," he said.

"In fact, we see the possibility of providing a court(room to hear Estrada’s case) in that site, if possible."

Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio, who opposed Estrada’s transfer to Camp Capinpin, said he would file a comment once Estrada has submitted his motion for a "temporary house arrest" to the Sandiganbayan’s special division.

Ebdane said the Sandiganbayan has authorized the PNP to move Estrada to another place of detention as long as the court’s sheriff and the defense are informed at least an hour in advance.

Ebdane lambasted the prosecution for threatening to ask the court to declare the PNP in contempt for moving Estrada from the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City to Camp Capinpin.

"We have gone through the process," he said.

Chief Superintendent Doroteo Reyes, PNP legal director, told the Sandiganbayan justices no other detention facility was available for Estrada.

"(Camp Capinpin) would be the better facility," he said. — Marichu Villanueva