MANILA – Ousted president Joseph Estrada accused President Arroyo yesterday of pressuring an anti-graft court to rule against him at his plunder trial, while his supporters warned of unrest if he is convicted.
President Arroyo’s administration denied the allegation, as rumors swirled that a three-judge panel could issue a verdict within weeks.
Estrada’s case closed June 15. The court has 90 days to announce a verdict.
His son and co-defendant, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, told reporters that a person highly trusted by both the Arroyo camp and the Estrada family met with his father twice to inform him that according to Arroyo, he would be convicted.
Jinggoy Estrada refused to name the alleged messenger, but said his father confirmed the information with another person, also close to Arroyo, whom he again refused to identify.
An ABS-CBN report earlier identified the two persons whom Arroyo allegedly informed of the verdict as El Shaddai leader Mike Velarde and Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal.
Msgr. Achilles Dakay, Cebu Archdiocese media liaison officer, said he does not know anything about the incident and could not issue a press statement.
No contact
Last night, ABS-CBN reported on its website that Cardinal Vidal denied being told by the President about an impending Estrada conviction.
“In the spirit of truth, I want to make it clear that [President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo] at no instance ever expressed to me, directly or indirectly that former president Joseph Estrada will be convicted by the Sandiganbayan,” Vidal was quoted as saying in the ABS-CBN website.
ABS-CBN-owned DzMM radio, quoting unnamed sources, said that President Arroyo talked to Velarde before the May 14 elections and told him she wanted Estrada to be convicted of plunder.
The report also said that Arroyo talked to Cardinal Vidal over the weekend and confirmed to him that the Sandiganbayan will soon release its decision on the plunder trial.
The radio station also reported that Vidal visited the former president last Monday at his Tanay, Rizal rest house, he is serving house arrest, to discuss the verdict.
Inside info?
DzMM said the two religious leaders “were disturbed that Mrs. Arroyo already knew the outcome of the trial given that the closing arguments only took place recently.”
Malacañang, however, denied the report.
“We believe in the rule of law and in letting justice take its course,” Arroyo’s spokesman Ignacio Bunye said in a statement. “At this stage we can only await the decision ... which we hope will uphold justice and the best public interest.”
Estrada, the second president toppled by a popular revolt since the 1986 ouster of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is accused of amassing about P4 billion in illegal funds. He also is charged with perjury for allegedly falsely declaring his assets.
He has been under house arrest since shortly after he was ousted in January 2001.
“Conviction is the farthest from our minds,” Jinggoy said, insisting that prosecutors failed to establish his father’s guilt.
In a statement issued from his detention house, Estrada accused Arroyo of compromising the court’s integrity “because of the unquenchable thirst for vengeance and retribution.”
Conditioning
“I can only hope that despite intense pressures from the executive branch, the honorable justices ... will continue to uphold their sacred oaths to render justice without fear or favor,” Estrada said.
“I reiterate before God and my countrymen that I am innocent of all the charges before me.”
Estrada’s spokesman and Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez criticized a paid newspaper ad from a previously unknown group, which said, “Erap: Guilty or not guilty. Does it need to lead to chaos?”
Opposition leaders accused Malacañang of conditioning the minds of the public to accept a guilty verdict.
Rodriguez said only an acquittal of Estrada is acceptable to the Filipino people.
Manila’s opposition Mayor Alfredo Lim warned that a guilty verdict would trigger public uproar, and vowed to allow protests.
Even from detention, the 70-year-old Estrada still commands influence and a following, particularly among the country’s poor, who idolize him because of his movie stardom.
Four months after he was forced to flee the presidential palace as tens of thousands of protesters sought his ouster, pro-Estrada supporters attempted to storm the palace and reinstate him. (AP/Sunnex/NRC)
