NEWSFLASH

---

ERAP, JINGGOY VOTE AT VETERANS HOSPITAL CELL

Manila, May 14, 2001 - (BULLETIN by BRENDA PIQUERO TUAZON) Former President Estrada, just like millions of Filipinos will vote today, but unlike the rest of the electorate who will be voting at pre-assigned polling booths across the country, will be exercising his right of suffrage in his Veterans Memorial Hospital detention cell.

This was reported last night by Dr. Loi EjercitoEstrada after the family received word from Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials that a team will be dispatched to the hospital complete with election paraphernalia to allow Mr. Estrada and their son, San Juan Mayor Jinggoy Estrada to register their votes.

The government's decision not to let Mr. Estrada vote in San Juan has posed a problem to foreign television networks and correspondents who have been hankering that they be allowed to cover the event.

Foreign correspondents have been tightly watching Mr. Estrada even in his detention cell in Sta. Rosa, Laguna but to without success.

Instead, they have turned to following Dr. Loi herself and the opposition campaign rallies while interviewing Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile at every turn.

As of late last night, there was no word whether foreign or local newsmen would be allowed entry to the Veterans Memorial Hospital when Mr. Estrada will cast his vote.

Both Mr. Estrada and Jinggoy are registered voters in San Juan, Metro Manila.

Mr. Estrada asked his wife to appeal in his behalf to the people to get out and vote and let their voices be heard.

"It is only in casting our right to vote that we can keep the flames of democracy alive and burning," Mrs. Estrada quoted her husband's statement.

Dr. Loi visited her husband at the hospital after he and Jinggoy were flown to the Veterans hospital from their detention cell in Fort Sto. Domingo, Sta. Rosa, Laguna where they languished in a isolated cottage away from family and friends for two weeks and with restricted visiting hours.

While at the hospital, she said, her husband discussed with her the importance of today's election, stressing that today's polls will serve as the first process to put the country in order.

"Hopefully, the healing process can begin," Dr. Loi quoted her husband as saying.

Mrs. Estrada, herself a senatorial candidate for the Puwersa ng Masa-Laban ng Demokritong Pilipino (PnM-LDP) coalition, expressed disappointment that both her husband and Jinggoy are not allowed to vote in their San Juan precincts.

She said thousands of their supporters in San Juan will be disappointed not to see Mr. Estrada in his regular precinct casting his vote as he has done long before he entered politics.

Speculations are rife that among the reasons why Mr. Estrada is not allowed to vote in San Juan is the certainty that he will be a huge attraction not only in his precinct but around town as well as its nearby municipalities the moment it happens.

And security maybe a problem.

However, according to Dr. Loi, her husband said he is not at all afraid going to San Juan knowing that the people of his town will never dare harm him.

"Instead, they will embrace and mob him," Dr. Loi said.

Appeal

Former President Estrada and his son San Juan, Metro Manila Mayor Jinggoy Estrada will vote today at Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City and no longer in San Juan, Metro Manila, while their co-accused in a plunder case, lawyer Edward Serapio, will vote in Obando, Bulacan.

This came after the Sandiganbayan Third Division reconsidered the appeal of Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Leandro Mendoza not to allow the two Estradas to exercise their right to vote in San Juan, Metro Manila, where the two are registered as voters.

Sandiganbayan Security and Sheriff Services chief Edgardo Urieta said the anti-graft court Third Division came up with another order, modifying its previous ruling allowing the Estradas to cast their vote in San Juan.

According to Urieta,Third Division chairman Associate Justice Anacleto D. Badoy Jr. and member Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro and Fifth Division chair Associate Justice Minita V. Chico-Nazario, signed the order.

Last May 11, the Third Division came up with an order allowing the two to leave their present confinement in Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna for today to enable them to cast their votes in the precincts where they are registered as voters.

The third division also allowed Serapio to temporarily leave Camp Crame to cast his vote in his polling center in Obando, Bulacan.

In a two page order, the division ordered Mendoza to properly put in operation all the necessary precautions for the security and safety of the accused during the duration that they are out of their places of confinement.

It also ordered that the Estradas be brought back to their respective places of confinement immediately after they shall have cast their votes today.

But last Saturday, Mendoza asked the Third Division to reconsider its May 11 order allowing the Estradas to leave Fort Sto. Domingo in St. Rosa, Laguna.

Instead, Mendoza told the court that the PNP foresees an enormous problem which shall imperil not only the personal safety of the two Estradas but the public as well, if they will be allowed to go to San Juan.

"That the event transpired last May 1 wherein thousands of Estrada's loyalists trooped to Malacañang was so alarming that took the declaration of state of rebellion by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo," Mendoza said in a motion for reconsideration.

The police chief also reasoned out that the personnel resources of the PNP were already deployed through out the country due to the upcoming national and local elections.

"Undoubtedly, huge Estrada loyalists and supporters will converge at San Juan where the former president and his son will cast their votes," Mendoza explained.

Attached to the motion is a letter addressed to Commission on Elections (Comelec) prepared by PNP Director General for Administration Hermogenes E. Ebdane requesting the commission to sit special polling precinct at Fort Sto. Domingo where the father-and-son are presently detained.

"In ordinary cases, detainees are allowed to cast their votes in polling places where they are registered with their corresponding escorts. In the case of former President Estrada and Mayor Jinggoy, allowing them to case their votes in San Juan will pose a big security problem," the letter stated.

In the said letter, Ebdane requested that the special polling place will be manned by no other than the same persons who were assigned to man the precinct in San Juan.

He added, the PNP is willing to provide them helicopter as a means of transporting them to the Estradas place of confinement.

In a radio interview, PNP director for administration Director Edgardo Aglipay said it would be difficult for the former president and his son to vote in San Juan citing the incident transpired during his arrest in the plunder case. (Edmer F. Panesa)