Court blamed for delay in Estrada's arrest

The Ombudsman has blamed the Sandiganbayan for the delay in issuing a warrant for the arrest of ousted President Joseph Estrada. Ombudsman Aniano Desierto said the Sandiganbayan's presiding justice, Francisco Garchitorena, had surprised him by saying the Ombudsman had failed to submit the necessary evidence against the deposed chief executive to allow the court to have him arrested.

Desierto said his office had turned over 29 folders of evidence to the Sandiganbayan (anti-graft court) on the day it filed 11 complaints against Estrada. It had taken two men, he said, to carry the voluminous documents to the court. Desierto said the Sandiganbayan had not advised his office to provide additional evidence and that he had only learned about this from the newspapers. "As of the close of business last Wednesday, my office had not received any order of the kind," he said.

"Despite the Lenten break, I ordered some of my staff to produce the additional sets of evidence, ready for submission to the Sandiganbayan as soon as we receive the order," Desierto said. Pelagio Apostol, the Ombudsman's director for evaluation and preliminary investigation said the agency had submitted all documents to back up the 11 charges.

Apostol, a veteran Ombudsman prosecutor at the Sandiganbayan, said he personally supervised the reproduction of the evidence, consisting of affidavits of witnesses, bank and other documents, and transcripts of the Senate impeachment proceedings. Estrada has said he is banking on his battery of lawyers to prove that he is innocent of the charges against him. "I leave it all up to my lawyers. I don't believe I committed plunder, all the charges are fabricated," Estrada said over the weekend. Estrada said with the government pressing his immediate arrest he might not be able to get a fair trial. He faces four counts of graft and corruption.