"He wishes to come. It will be an opportunity for him to again visit his mother because after the oral argument we can proceed to the hospital where his mother is confined," Estrada’s lawyer, Jose Flaminiano, said in an interview.

Last Friday, the antigraft court’s Special Division decided to hear Estrada’s motion for reconsideration on Oct. 19.

The court likewise approved the detained ex- president’s visit to his ailing 102-year-old mother, Doña Mary Marcelo Ejercito, at the San Juan Medical Center in San Juan City on Monday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

It was the second time that Estrada was allowed by the court to leave his rest house and detention quarters in Tanay, Rizal since he was convicted of plunder and sentenced to life in prison.

Estrada filed a motion for reconsideration last Sept. 26, arguing for a "mistrial" because he was "misinformed of the charges" against him.

He also claimed that he was denied his right to be presumed innocent and was convicted "on the basis of surmises, inferences and speculative evidence," and that "the court had pyramided interference upon interference to build a case for (his) conviction."

The court gave the prosecution panel, headed by Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio, until Oct. 11 to comment on Estrada’s motion for reconsideration and set oral arguments in lieu of Estrada’s filing of reply and rejoinder by the prosecution.

The court will deem the motion for reconsideration submitted for resolution after the oral arguments. It has one month from then to render its final judgment on Estrada’s sixyearold case.

Flaminiano, who requested for the conduct of oral arguments, hailed the anti-graft court’s ruling and said he hopes the court would change its mind.

"The justices might want to quiz the prosecutors and the defense lawyers on certain matters which we believe might have a bearing on the proper resolution of our motion for reconsideration," Flaminiano added. (Edmer F. Panesa)