SAGUISAG'S STORY
In all probability, Villa-Ignacio had an easier time deciding to accept the challenge compared to the defense’s Rene Saguisag, who found himself with a very upset spouse when it became clear he was mulling an offer to represent Estrada. In an interview with PCIJ in late 2005, Saguisag even said that his wife Dulce had cried and cried for at least three hours over the matter.

Even today, Saguisag is known more as a human-rights lawyer and for being one of the more prominent members of the Cory Cabinet. He told PCIJ that when Estrada was still in Malacañang, he had been one of the former action film star’s critics. He had been Estrada’s lawyer in the past, he admitted, “but even before he took his oath, we quarreled.”

But Saguisag said he had a soft spot for the underdog, which was what the ousted president had become. In the end, he said, Dulce asked him to consult former President Aquino, assuring him that whatever Aquino said, she would accept.

And so it was, recalled Saguisag, that “President Cory invited me to join her at the Pink Sisters (convent) where we prayed, and after that she really did not tell me what to do. She just said …for me to discern on my own. So I thought that it was really Erap against the world at the time, eh. So he was the underdog.”

His wife proved true to her word and held her peace when it was announced that he was to be Estrada’s lead counsel. The public was not as understanding as Dulce, but as Saguisag insisted to PCIJ, “He was despised. And as a human being, as a Christian, as a lawyer, I had no difficulty helping the so-called outcast.”

SHREWD DEFENSE STRATEGISTS
At the time, the man who would become Saguisag’s counterpart in the prosecution was still preoccupied with the role of teacher to law students. But even if Villa-Ignacio came in five months late, he quickly got up to speed on the case.

It helped that he had worked with or appeared against many of Estrada’s lawyers in past cases and was therefore familiar with their court styles and strategies. It’s apparent that he holds members of the defense team in high esteem, but Villa-Ignacio singles out Jose Flaminiano as the “most remarkable of them all.” He says they had worked together in prosecuting businessman Rolito Go, who had shot dead motorist Eldon Maguan during a traffic altercation in Greenhills in July 1991.

“Flaminiano is shrewd, a good strategist,” says Villa-Ignacio. “He could outwit anyone. I learned a lot from him.”

At one point during Go’s trial, Villa-Ignacio recalls, Flaminiano already had an inkling that a witness, a policeman from Nueva Ecija, would lie in his testimony about several entries in the police logbook in favor of Go.

Villa-Ignacio says that to avert the witness’s expected lying under oath, Flaminiano brought in court a supposed photocopy of the original logbook. Villa-Ignacio says that Flaminiano later told his fellow prosecutors that the photocopy was not really that of the original logbook entries.

Interestingly, a similar ploy used by the Fortun brothers at the impeachment trial earned not awe, but ire, from the senator-judges. The Fortuns had challenged a prosecution witness to identify Delia Rajas, who they said was sitting in the gallery watching the proceedings. One Delia Rajas had done transactions at a Land Bank of the Philippines branch that had some connection with the case. When the witness failed to identify anyone in the gallery as the woman who had dealt with her at the bank, the Fortuns triumphantly called to the stand someone who identified herself as Delia Rajas. Her name was indeed that, but the Fortuns were soon forced to admit that they knew she was not the same Rajas who had gone to the bank.

Several of the senator-judges called the brothers’ action as “unfair, misleading, and a dirty trick.” Senator-Judge Franklin Drilon even asked the court to order the Fortuns, as well as lawyer Alfredo Villamor, who was also part of the defense panel, to show cause why they should not be cited for contempt. By most indications, however, that was as far as it went, with Edsa Dos cutting the impeachment trial short. The Fortuns have since been building up their practice, which has attracted clients like TV game show host Kris Aquino and dermatologist-to-the-stars Vicki Belo.