MANILA, Philippines --The Sandiganbayan will proceed to garnish four bank accounts of former president Joseph Estrada, an official of the anti-graft court said.

Sheriff Ed Urieta said he would send the notice of garnishment to bank authorities ordering them to freeze the accounts after a five-day deadline in which he was supposed to return to the government some P545 million in ill-gotten wealth.

"Through the notice of garnishment, we inform the bank to freeze the account. No one is touching the account without authority from the sheriff," Urieta explained in a phone interview Tuesday.

However, Urieta refused to identify the banks.

Estrada was convicted of plunder and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Sandiganbayan Special Division in September but was pardoned by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo a month later.

The court also ordered the forfeiture of P545 million representing payoffs from the illegal numbers game “jueteng,” and commissions from the trading of Belle Corp. shares, using funds from the Government Service Insurance System and Social Security System.

The ill-gotten funds included P200 million deposited in the Erap Muslim Youth Foundation; the P189-million commission Estrada received from the purchase of Belle shares, which ended up in the account of Jose Velarde, Estrada’s alias, and the “Boracay Mansion” in New Manila, Quezon City.

Urieta said that of the amount, they were certain about forfeiting some P200 million because the rest have been allegedly withdrawn.

Urieta said that if the money from these accounts were not enough, Estrada would have to raise the money from his personal or real properties.

Aside from the bank accounts, Urieta said he was also checking on the vehicles owned by Estrada to determine whether these had been registered under Estrada's name so that these could also be forfeited in favor of the court.

"If it is a new registration we will investigate it [because] it could be a fraudulent transfer," Urieta said.

"We will also check his real properties. I will not stop unless ordered by the court," he added.

Estrada's lawyers have filed a motion to quash to stop the Sheriff from seizing the former leader's personal and real properties.

Estrada, who was a popular actor before he entered politics in 1969, said he did not have the funds demanded in the court’s order.

He pledged to exhaust all legal means to prevent the government from getting its hands on his properties.