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Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Opposition may use Erap as rallying point v. Arroyo
MANILA -- Former President Joseph Estrada’s verdict Wednesday, the culmination of a six-year trial, will provide the latest opportunity for the largely headless opposition to try creating a rallying point to end President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s tenure before her term ends in 2010.
Arroyo is barred from seeking another term.
Is former President Joseph Estrada guilty or not guilty of plunder charges? Post your comments here.
The Arroyo government is not taking any chances, putting together a massive police and military presence to stop any protests before they have a chance to spin out of control.
The court had initially banned live television coverage of the verdict, but the Supreme Court Tuesday overturned the decision following an appeal by the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP).
The anti-graft court issued notices of promulgation to prosecution and defense panels and an order to Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Oscar Calderon to bring Estrada in court at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
In a taped message smuggled to a radio station on the eve of the verdict, Estrada said he believes the public has already decided he is not guilty of the corruption charges, which he has maintained were politically motivated.
“I have been in detention for six years, four months, and 17 days,” he said.
“But because of your prayers, help, and love I have survived this heavy burden. Whatever the verdict of the Sandiganbayan (graft court), I am prepared because I have already been acquitted by the people,” he said.
“My personal freedom is no longer important,” Estrada said, stressing that his only wish now is for the Philippines to rise out of poverty.
Estrada, 70, stands accused of stealing over $80 million mainly through tax kickbacks and payoffs from illegal gambling barons.
The charges carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment after the government abolished the death penalty.
He has denied the allegations, accusing the business elite, his successor Gloria Arroyo and the powerful Roman Catholic Church of conspiring against him because of his populist platform.
Estrada Tuesday said he had twice rejected offers from Arroyo to clear his name, in exchange for his voluntary departure from the country.
Before leaving for Manila Tuesday, Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal released a pastoral letter, calling on the clergy and the faithful to pray for peace and order, as Sandiganbayan hands down its verdict.
“As your archbishop, I would like to express my desire that all of us must pray for peace and order in our country. Instead of resorting to mass action, I propose that we come together to pray,” Vidal said in his letter.
The prelate admitted that the verdict is “bound to affect us all,” no matter what the decision of the anti-graft court is.
“I hereby order that all parishes and sanctuaries in the Archdiocese of Cebu will hold a public exposition of the Blessed Sacrament today. I ask all parishes to take turns in attending a day-long vigil,” the cardinal said.
After advising Estrada to focus his mind on the future, he discouraged his followers from gathering and forming another popular revolt in the streets that would restore him to the presidency.
The Police Regional Office 7 placed the Central Visayas under “full alert status” starting noontime Tuesday in anticipation of street demonstrations.
Cebu City Police Director Patrocinio Comendador said at least two platoons of policemen have been designated as crowd dispersal management teams tasked to oversee the rallies.
A former prosecutors in the Estrada impeachment case said the win-win decision for the former President’s case is that if it is conviction, it must be for a lesser offense because the people are now lukewarm about giving Estrada a stiff penalty.
Former congresswoman Clavel Asas-Martinez said the accusations of corruption and irregularities against Estrada are nothing compared with those of the present administration.
She said in a radio interview that if the decision is conviction, it must be a “lesser offense and credit the six years of incarceration.”
AFP Chief Hermogenes Esperon placed troops on high alert to ensure calm following the announcement of the verdict, with extra forces placed on standby in military bases around Manila to aid police if necessary.
President Arroyo, meanwhile, has been advised by her security staff to remain inside Malacañang Palace as the verdict is read.
The opposition has been trying virtually nonstop to oust Arroyo since she was sworn in, as the country’s second “people power” revolt forced Estrada to leave the presidential palace by the back door in January 2001.
Each effort -— including at least two military-backed coup plots and another failed power grab -- has drawn less public support.
Midterm elections earlier this year entrenched the Arroyo administration’s hold on the House of Representatives, quashing the threat of a third impeachment attempt and cementing Arroyo reputation as a political survivor.
If Estrada is acquitted, he would almost certainly emerge as the opposition’s rallying focus, with a moral mandate as a man who wrongly spent six years under house arrest - in line with his image as an action film star who often played underdog heroes.
The opposition has been lacking such a charismatic leader since Arroyo’s main opponent in the hotly contested 2004 election, another action film star and Estrada buddy Fernando Poe Jr., died of a stroke several months later without conceding defeat.
A guilty verdict could get Estrada more time behind bars - he said he would refuse a pardon - which could rile the urban poor who have formed the base of his political clout. When he was first arrested in April 2001 with one of his sons, Senator Jinggoy Estrada, photos of them in a Spartan cell sparked a public backlash, with protests that turned into a violent attempt to storm the presidential palace.
Since then, with the government well aware of possible fallout over anything seen as a slight, Estrada has spent his time in a hospital, a specially built house inside a military camp, and his own nearby villa.
He has been allowed to leave several times, most recently to see his ailing 102-year-old mother on Saturday. He has had steady access to the media, commenting by cell phone on radio and in newspapers on every controversial topic that has come up.
The only thing left to decide is whether he will continue to speak his mind from detention, or as a free man. (AP/AFP/NRC/JST/MEA/MBG/Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Pangasinan. (September 12, 2007 issue)
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