JOSEPH EJERCITO ESTRADA v SANDIGANBAYAN
Joseph Ejercito Estrada, petitioner, vs Sandiganbayan (Third Division) and PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, respondents. G.R. No. 148560. November 19, 2001
BELLOSILLO, J.:
Facts
Joseph Estrada was accused that during the period from June 1998 to January 2001, by himself and/or in connivance/conspiracy with his co-accused, who are members of his family, relatives by affinity or consanguinity, business associates, subordinates and/or other persons, by taking undue advantage of his official position, authority, relationship, connection or influence, did then and there willfully, unlawfully and criminally amass, accumulate and acquire by himself directly/indirectly, ill-gotten wealth in the aggregate amount or total value of P4,097,804,173.17, more or less, thereby unjustly enriching himself or themselves at the expense and to the damage of the Filipino people and the republic of the Philippines through any or combination or a series of overt or criminal acts, or similar schemes or means.
Respectively or a total of more or less (P1,847,578,057.50); and by collecting or receiving, directly or indirectly, by himself and/or in connivance with John Does & Jane Does, commissions or percentages by reason of said purchases of shares of stock in the amount of P189,700,000.00 more or less, from Belle Corporation which became part of the Deposit in the equitable Bank under the account name of ‘Jose Velarde’.
Petitioner wishes to impress upon the constitutionality of RA 7080 (An Act Defining and Penalizing the Crime of Plunder), as amended by RA 7659. He therefore makes a stringent call for this Court to subject the Plunder Law to the crucible of constitutionality mainly because, according to him, (a) it suffers from the vice of vagueness; (b) it dispenses with the "reasonable doubt" standard in criminal prosecutions; and, (c) it