HARVARD ALUMNI MEET
The PCIJ tried to secure a full interview with the defense team for this piece, but did not get an appointment. It did manage to get a hold of lawyer Adel Tamano, spokesperson of the Genuine Opposition. Tamano says, among other things, that the Fortuns “add credibility” to the defense team. He says the older brother, Sigfrid, seems quiet but thinks deeply about his next moves. In comparison, he says, Raymond has good court presence and “is theatrical.”

“I am very happy how the defense team handled the case,” says Tamano, who was part of the defense legal team during the impeachment trial from November 2000 to January 2001. But he reserves the most praise for Estelito Mendoza, who he apparently considers as his mentor. Tamano worked as Mendoza’s assistant for five years until 2003, when he left for the United States to take up his master’s in law at the Harvard University.

Mendoza has the ability to see the big picture and identify things that are crucial to address to win the case, Tamano says. “His success rate shows,” he adds. “He is one of the most sought-after litigation lawyers (in the country).”

Tamano says that in the last two years, he would occasionally meet Mendoza and lead counsel Saguisag during meetings of their fellow Filipino alumni of the Harvard Law School. They would talk about the Estrada case, he says. As Tamano sees it, the evidence presented during the impeachment trial was insufficient to lead to a guilty verdict, and notes that the same pieces of evidence were used in the plunder case. “Based on the summation itself,” he says, “President Estrada has a good chance of being acquitted.”

The prosecution, of course, is saying the exact opposite. Villa-Ignacio has even said, “I'm very confident. We don't even discuss a scenario na talo (that we lost the case).”

UNDERESTIMATED PROSECUTORS?
Indeed, it could well be that many people have grossly underestimated the abilities of the prosecution team, which has included Deputy Special Prosecutor Robert Kallos, Deputy Ombudsman for Mindanao Humphrey Monteroso, prosecutors Raymundo Julio Olaguer, John I.C. Turralba, Pilarita Lapitan, and Elvira Chua, Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuno, Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Richard Fadullon, and prosecutor Perfecto Lawrence Chua Cheng V.

Turralba, for instance, has been entrusted with other high-profile cases, such as those against former First Lady Imelda Marcos involving the Technology Resource Center Foundation Inc., as well as the infamous PEA-Amari case, in which officials of the Public Estates Authority (PEA) stand accused of entering into an anomalous joint-venture agreement with the Amari Coastal Bay Corporation to reclaim and develop three islands.

Olaguer, meanwhile, recently had his book Fighting Corruption published, even as he handles another high-profile case on corruption, this time involving the construction of the President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard. Again, PEA board members and officers are on the dock, along with Commission on Audit officials and a private contractor. All of them are accused of irregular and overpriced payments amounting to P837 million.

Olaguer highlighted this case during his oral summation at the Estrada trial, to show that the Arroyo administration gives the Sandiganbayan a free hand in investigating high-profile cases. Unfortunately, his efforts elicited jeers from the audience, especially when he uttered things like “Honesty is the best policy” and “It is a sin to tell a lie.”

Still, other prosecutors are confident their team got the job done. Kallos, for one, says that they even made it a point to have strategic committee reports during the presentation of evidence. “Before we go to court,” he says, “we convene and ask each other on what to do and what strategy to use.” He adds that frequent “scenario-setting” helped them identify possible answers to strengthen their presentations. And after each trial, he says, they would discuss what had transpired, even during lunch, so they could identify weak areas and think of ways to remedy these.