Estrada camp eyes hospital arrest due to knee condition
MANILA, Philippines — The camp of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada is looking into filing a motion for hospital arrest before the Sandiganbayan due to his knee condition.
Lawyer Noel Ostrea made this known in an ambush interview during the court recess for the Thursday arraignment proceeding of the antigraft Second Division for his graft case.
Ostrea noted that Estrada has osteoarthritis and effusion in his knee joint.
“I would like to stress that the senator, he didn’t want to raise this before as an issue,” Ostrea said.
READ: Sandiganbayan postpones arraignment of Jinggoy Estrada, Manuel Bonoan
Asked if they are considering filing for hospital arrest because of this, the lawyer said: “We might have to because as you can see, even when seated in the Quezon City jail, he is already having a hard time.”
Estrada, who is detained in the New Quezon City jail in Barangay Payatas, attended the arraignment via teleconferencing.
At one point during the arraignment proceedings, Estrada asked if he could be excused, and Geraldine Faith Econg, the Sandiganbayan presiding justice and Second Division chairperson, asked what was the matter.
“It’s his knee, when he sits for a long time,” Ostrea told the court.
Econg said, however, that Estrada should stay until the end of the proceedings.
Meanwhile, Ostrea said they already withdrew the motion to transfer the custody of Estrada from the Payatas jail to the Philippine National Police custodial center.
“We withdrew it in the Fifth Division, and we intend to withdraw it here as well, because his family is able to visit him and he is already satisfied with the conditions of his confinement,” he said.
Estrada is also facing graft and non-bailable plunder cases in the anti-graft court Fifth Division, which led to his detention.
The Second Division entered a not guilty plea to the graft charge against Estrada, filed after he refused to enter a plea.
On the other hand, the arraignment for his plunder and graft case in the Fifth Division has been rescheduled to June 30 due to the pending motion to quash, or the formal motion to dismiss the charges against him. /mr /atm
