Deposed president Joseph Estrada used a bank account of one of his sons in order to hide some ill-gotten wealth, government lawyers told a hearing on his P4.1-billion ($75.93 million) plunder case at the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan.

In an interview over radio dzBB, Assistant Ombudsman Dennis Villaignacio said San Juan Mayor Jose Victor 'JV' Ejercito, Estrada's illegitimate son by former actress Gia Gomez, could not have earned P400 million ($7.4 million) on his own considering that he had not been in public life for long and was not a known "corporate genius".

But Rufus Rodriguez, Ejercito's lawyer, said that his client has investments in various companies with a combined capital of P1 billion ($18.51 million).

Stressing before the court that his client is not the one on trial, Rodriguez said the opening of Ejercito's account at Export and Industry Bank would violate the existing anti-graft and bank secrecy laws.

Government prosecutors yesterday filed a petition before the anti-graft court's Special Division, praying for Sandiganbayan to subpoena Aurora Baldoz, vice-president of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation; Marie Rose Claudio, branch manager of the United Overseas Bank-West Avenue branch; and the president or any representative of Export and Industry Bank (formerly Urban Bank) where Estrada and his family allegedly have accounts bearing ill-gotten wealth.

Now detained in a suite at the Veteran's Memorial Medical Centre in suburban Quezon City pending resolution of his criminal cases, Estrada is being tried for plunder, perjury and for illegal use of an alias.