Erap shares noche buena with mom tonight

After almost five years in detention, ousted President Joseph Estrada will spend Christmas with his ailing 100-year-old mother and the entire Ejercito clan.

He leaves his resthouse at Tanay, Rizal for his mother’s house in North Greenhills Subdivision in San Juan this afternoon.

The 68-year-old Estrada will be escorted by sheriffs of the Sandiganbayan, along with police and troops when he goes to Kennedy Street in North Greenhills, residence of Doña Mary Marcelo-Ejercito.

Estrada will spend the night there and will be brought back to his 15-hectare vacation estate in Tanay, Rizal by 5 p.m. tomorrow, Christmas Day.

The Ejercitos will be gathering tonight for the traditional noche Buena or Christmas eve dinner.

Estrada’s wife and son, Senators Luisa Ejercito and Jinggoy Estrada, are expected to attend the occasion, along with San Juan Mayor JV Ejercito, Estrada’s son by former actress Guia Gomez.

Estrada was granted a 24-hour pass by the Sandiganbayan after Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa Ignacio raised no objection to his request. However, the anti-graft court rejected Estrada’s request to extend the Christmas pass granted to him by 14 more hours.

Senator Ejercito described her husband’s visit to Doña Mary as "an eventful Christmas celebration for our family in a long, long time."

"Even if it will be for barely 24 hours and not in our home in Polk Street, North Greenhills, my husband’s homecoming will be a significant event for our family to finally spend Christmas Eve outside of any detention quarters," she said.

Estrada will be doing the same thing on New Year’s Day, when he is allowed to leave Tanay at 5 p.m. on Dec. 31 and scheduled to return by 5 p.m. the following day, Jan. 1, 2006.

Estrada, who is facing charges of plunder and perjury charges, remains detained at his sprawling estate in Tanay, Rizal as he is not entitled to bail.

Jinggoy, who was granted P500,000 bail in March 2003, will join his father at his grandmother’s house until Christmas Day, before he leaves for Japan.

Upon the Sandiganbayan’s permission, Jinggoy will stay in Japan from Dec. 25 to Dec. 31.