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By Jomar Canlas, Reporter
THE Office of the Ombudsman is now pushing for
the revival of an other pending case before the Sandiganbayan
involving former President Joseph Estrada.
Likewise, the tug-of-war of the anti-graft court
and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) over the controversial Jose
Velarde account will resume.
This developed after the Special Prosecutors of
the Office of the Ombudsman asked the Sandiganbayan First Division,
chaired by Presiding Justice Diosdado Peralta, to start with its
trial on a separate perjury case against Estrada, which remain
pending before the anti-graft court.
In a five-page motion by the government
prosecutors, headed by Deputy Special Prosecutor Robert Kallos, it
was argued that the case remains alive despite the conclusion of the
joint trials on Estrada’s plunder, perjury and illegal use of
alias cases at the Sandiganbayan Special Division on September 12,
2007.
The prosecutors argued that what was included in
the joint trial of the Special Division was Criminal Case no. 26905
or the perjury case concerning the alleged misrepresentations in
Estrada’s 1998 statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).
But it was pointed out that the other perjury case pending before
the First Division is Criminal Case no. 26564 concerning Estrada’s
1999 SALN.
“The people are ready, willing and able to
continue the prosecution of the case at bar which has not even been
subject of final resolution by this Honorable Court’s First
Division and remains pending herein after arraignment and
pre-trial,” the motion stated.
This unresolved perjury case failed to reach its
termination because of a legal quagmire in November 2001, which was
during the time of the late Presiding Justice Francis Garchitorena,
then chairman of the First Division.
Garchitorena disallowed the documentary evidence
on the basis that government prosecutors failed to enumerate them in
the list they submitted during the pre-trial conference.
Included in the documents are banking papers
which would show that Estrada maintained two deposit accounts
containing at least P74 million, when he only declared a net worth
of only P35 million including noncash assets.
But the Estrada camp has already declared that
the case was already terminated after a Garchitorena ruling
disallowed the bank documents.
Battle over Velarde accounts
In the meantime, the Sandiganbayan Special
Division is set to hear the legal battle over who must gain control
of the P1.1-billion Jose Velarde account.
The hearing of the case is scheduled on Friday,
June 27, and the Sandiganbayan seeks to gain control of the said
account on the basis of its September 12, 2007, conviction of
Estrada for plunder. The anti-graft court argued that the account
contained ill-gotten wealth amassed by Estrada, and ordered it
forfeited in favor of the government.
But Equitable PCI-Bank, now merged with Banco de
Oro, insists that the court cannot levy the account since there is
an existing lien on the Velarde assets by the BIR, and a separate
claim by the Wellex Group of Companies of businessman William
Gatchalian.
If the BIR wins its claim, it could collect some
P1.8 billion in income tax deficiencies for taxable year 1999 from
Banco de Oro, where the Jose Velarde account was deposited by
Estrada.
Besides this, the Wellex Group Inc. insists that
the assets held in trust with the bank are a promissory note and a
chattel mortgage amounting to P500 million.
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