Joseph Estrada pal Jaime Dichaves back in town, says lawyer

Businessman Jaime Dichaves is now back in the country after the Sandiganbayan recalled his arrest warrant, according to his lawyer Pacifico Agabin.

Agabin said Dichaves, a coaccused in former President Joseph Estrada’s plunder case, called him up on Sunday and informed him that he had returned to the Philippines.

“He’s already here. Last Sunday, he called me up and told me he’s in Manila,” Agabin told the Inquirer.

Asked if he had met with the businessman, Agabin said Dichaves just spoke to him over the phone.

The lawyer said Dichaves had come from China.

“[He] said he was glad to be back,” he added.

He added that the Sandiganbayan’s order recalling Dichaves’ arrest warrant had already been forwarded to the Bureau of Immigration.

Preliminary investigation

Earlier, the Sandiganbayan’s special division directed the Office of the Ombudsman to conduct a preliminary investigation on Dichaves and also recalled his arrest warrant.

The antigraft court said the businessman had been unable to participate in the earlier preliminary probe of the case and was not served copies of the Ombudsman resolution on the case.

When he left the country, there was no complaint yet filed against him, it noted.

Dichaves left the country at the height of the corruption scandal that eventually led to Estrada’s ouster and his subsequent conviction for plunder.

Meanwhile, Agabin said another coaccused in Estrada’s plunder case, Yolanda Ricaforte, would also return home once the Sandiganbayan grants her pending motion seeking the recall of her arrest warrant and the reinvestigation of her case.

Agabin said as far as he knew, Ricaforte is not in the Philippines, and was last known to be in the United States. He said he gets in touch with his client over the phone.

He also said he objected to the earlier Inquirer story on Ricaforte’s motion where it was said that the coaccused in the plunder case was coming out of the woodwork.

He said it was good that Ricaforte was coming out to face the charges against her.

“She’s going to fight the charges against her. She must have a good reason for doing so,” he said.

Ricaforte allegedly acted as auditor of the collections from illegal gambling payoffs to Estrada. The payoffs were also allegedly deposited in a bank account in her name.

She reportedly fled to the United States when Estrada’s involvement in the payoffs were exposed. The help of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation has been sought to track her down.

In her motion, she had said that no preliminary investigation was conducted against her before the charges were filed, and that the charge sheet stated facts that do not constitute an offense.