‘Can’t you take a joke?’ Erap tells justice who convicted him

JUSTICE IS SERVED (AND CHARMED) Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada bows to Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro as they find themselves both speaking in a convention at Manila Hotel on Thursday. Grig C. Montegrande

He found her “unforgettable”; she called him “the quintessential gentleman.”

Yet nine years earlier she presided over the antigraft court that convicted him for plunder, making him the first and only President of the country to be sent to prison.

There was no trace of animosity, only animated talk, when Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada shared the stage with Supreme Court Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, a former chair of the Sandiganbayan special division that heard the historic Erap plunder trial.

Estrada was convicted in September 2007 but actually never spent a day behind bars as he received presidential pardon weeks later. He made a successful political comeback in the 2013 local elections and is now seeking another term in the May 9 polls.

Occasionally bumping into each other in official functions, De Castro and Estrada exchanged compliments as they met again Thursday morning at a convention of women judges at Manila Hotel.

Their past courtroom encounters must be so far behind them now as De Castro laced her speech with an acknowledgement of Estrada as “the quintessential gentleman, most kind-hearted, the public servant most loved by the poor.”

In his turn to speak, the 78-year-old Estrada reached into his old bag of Erap quips, calling her “the justice responsible for my… never mind.” She broke into chuckles along with the gathering of some 350 female members of the judiciary, led by Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno.

“I’ll never forget her,” he said.

“I said then that I was ready to go to jail because I stole nothing from the government. Can you believe I was actually sent to jail? Ma’am, can’t you take a joke?” the mayor said, looking at De Castro and drawing another wave of laughter.

But later he pointed out that De Castro, as Supreme Court justice, wrote the Jan. 21, 2015, ruling that dismissed the disqualification case filed by then Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, who questioned Estrada’s candidacy as mayor. Lim later lost to Estrada on polling day.

“Then and now, Justice De Castro has risen as a member of the Supreme Court while I have returned to the city of my birth to heed the call of public service once again,” said Estrada. “Justice De Castro as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court penned the decision to dismiss the disqualification case filed against me. Thank you, Justice.”

The De Castro-led Sandiganbayan special division sentenced Estrada to 40 years in prison for amassing ill-gotten wealth during his short-lived presidency.

The two other members of the division were Diosdado Peralta and Francisco Villaruz Jr. Peralta now also sits on the Supreme Court.

In her remarks, Sereno noted how Estrada “regards (De Castro) with so much appreciation.”

And like De Castro, the chief magistrate recalled her past banters with the ex-President.

“I have sat beside him at state functions. I can attest to the fact that he has stories he has regaled seatmates with on how women should be loved,” she said of the former movie star who had fathered children with different women.

“I was just so distracted at a state dinner, I wanted to believe he was as ardent in telling me how love was to be played out… It left such an indelible mark on me.  I will always be mystified whether your stories were true or not,” she said, turning at the podium to see Estrada smiling back.

Nine years earlier, De Castro (lower photo) was part of the antigraft court that convicted the deposed President for plunder. Raffy Lerma