Erap’s mag photos irk prosecutors

Government prosecutors raised a howl yesterday over what they described as the "very liberal and lax security" accorded by police custodians to deposed President Joseph Estrada as evidenced by photos that appeared in two magazines.

Pictures of Estrada that came out in Time magazine and the local glossy Yes! were not court-sanctioned, Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa Ignacio said.

Villa Ignacio pointed to a photograph that appeared in the May 10 issue of Time magazine showing Estrada reading a book in bed inside his detention quarters at Camp Capinpin.

"There has been a breach or violation of the custodial arrangement," Villa Ignacio said. "His custodians have allowed him to be interviewed by foreign correspondents without a court order."

The sidebar on Estrada, which accompanied an article on the May 10 elections, was written by Time’s Anthony Spaeth.

Villa Ignacio also accused the police yesterday of allowing Estrada to spend time at his resthouse in Tanay, Rizal, just across Camp Capinpin, without any order from the Sandiganbayan.

The prosecutor presented in court a photograph from Yes! showing Estrada with former starlet Laarni Enriquez and their three children, not in his detention quarters at Camp Capinpin, but in his resthouse.

"This only shows Erap is being given easy access to his resthouse even without the permission of the Court," he said.

A painting in the photograph of Estrada and Enriquez is the same one seen in a picture taken of him and a television reporter in the villa last April 20, he added.

During the same proceeding, Villa Ignacio questioned lawyer Ramon Talaron why his clients, Philippine National Police chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., and Chief Superintendent Rolando Sacramento, Estrada’s chief custodian, were not present in court.

"These are matters that we have to ask Ebdane and Sacramento," he said. "How these things have happened without the court knowing it."

Talaron said Ebdane and Sacramento failed to come to court because they were preoccupied with "post-election responsibilities."

Villa Ignacio also complained to the special division that Estrada had endorsed the candidacy for senator of his son, Jinggoy in footage taken within the barbed wire enclosure around his bungalow at Camp Capinpin.

"The broadcast quality seemed to be excellent," he said. "They probably set up the place."

Estrada had also taped a message "with good quality," calling on his supporters to vote for his buddy, Fernando Poe Jr. as the country’s next president, he added.

Also yesterday, Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Minita Chico-Nazario and Justice Edilberto Sandoval asked defense counsel Jose Flaminiano to start presenting evidence when Estrada’s plunder trial resumes on May 31.

"What motion will you file again, Attorney Flaminiano?" Chico-Nazario asked.

"If you’re saying that your client is innocent, then with more reason that you should hurry up the case," she said.

On the other hand, Sandoval said: "If he is really innocent, you should clear his name the soonest."

Flaminiano told the Court there were still pending motions that have yet to be resolved.

Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro is also a member of the special division trying the criminal cases against Estrada.