Estrada pleads not guilty

President Estrada entered yesterday a plea of "not guilty" to the impeachment complaint under which he will be tried by the Senate starting Dec. 7 on corruption and other charges.

"The accused respectfully prays that a plea of not guilty be entered for him in the records of this case and, thereafter, after due proceedings, a judgment of acquittal be rendered by the Senate," his lawyers said in a pleading.

"He has been faithful to his oath of office," it said.

This developed as the 11-member prosecution panel from the House of Representatives asked the impeachment tribunal to subpoena presidential son and San Juan Mayor Jinggoy Estrada so that he could testify as a "hostile witness."

Such a witness is somebody who will appear in favor of the defense but who, before making his testimony official, suddenly testifies for the prosecution, or vice versa.

Mr. Estrada, in a chance interview in a Quezon City hospital, said he will not object to the prosecution’s request.

"No matter how they call it, hostile witness or what, they can summon anyone," the President told reporters after visiting his friend Henry Lim, who figured in an accident.

While the prosecution panel wants Jinggoy to appear in the trial, it still has yet to decide on the matter of summoning presidential mistresses.

"If we determine that we can elicit new testimonies or information from them, then we will have them summoned," House Minority Leader Feliciano Belmonte Jr. (Lakas, Quezon City), prosecution manager, told radio station dzRH.

He said if in the prosecutors’ judgment no such information could be elicited, the President’s women would not be subpoenaed.

"But definitely, we will not ask for their appearance in the trial just to embarrass them or the President," he said.

Mr. Estrada is accused in the 270-page articles of impeachment of bribery, graft and corruption, betrayal of the public trust and violation of the constitution. Most of the charges are based on accusations by Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson that he received millions of dollars from operators of an illegal numbers game and from excise taxes intended for tobacco farmers.

In a 16-page response, Mr. Estrada’s lawyers argued that the charges do not constitute impeachable offenses and insisted he had been "faithful to his oath of office."

"They (the President’s lawyers) are denying everything," said Senate legal counsel David Yap. "They are denying the fact that this complaint meets the requirements of a complaint."

The prosecution panel now have five days to reply to Mr. Estrada’s response.

Mr. Estrada will be removed only if at least two-thirds of the 22 senators vote to convict him. Currently he is believed to have a narrow margin of support for remaining in office.

Rep. Roan Libarios of Agusan del Norte, one of the 11 prosecutors, said Mr. Estrada’s brief and general response to the charges was expected.

"We even thought they will not file an answer so that they will not be pinned down on their specific line of defense," he said.

The prosecutors asked the Senate yesterday to allow an inspection of several expensive mansions which Mr. Estrada is accused of having acquired while in office for the use of his mistresses.

They also requested subpoenas for several witnesses, including Jinggoy, bank officials, and a woman who allegedly kept records of the gambling payoffs.

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel has said he believes the trial can be finished by the end of December, but other senators think it may take until at least January.

Many business and labor groups are demanding that Mr. Estrada step down to avoid a lengthy legal process that could further damage the country’s economy by hurting business confidence.

Tens of thousands of people protested on Thursday in cities throughout the country urging the Chief Executive to resign, and threatened civil disobedience if he refuses.

Mr. Estrada replied that he would await the outcome of the impeachment trial.

But in his response yesterday, he argued that the impeachment complaint should be thrown out because much of the evidence consisted of newspaper clippings.

"Many of the specifications are in newspaper articles which cannot take the place of allegations of ultimate facts," the response said.

On Tuesday, the Senate rejected a motion from the President’s lawyers that the case be rejected on technical grounds because the House never voted before forwarding the impeachment complaint to the Senate for a trial.

Mr. Estrada has acknowledged that he was offered a bribe by Singson but said he refused it. The money, however, was later given to an Estrada aide and deposited in the bank account of a foundation for scholarships for Muslim youth.

Mr. Estrada’s brother-in-law heads the foundation, which has never awarded any scholarships.

Meanwhile, Belmonte said it’s up to the team of Makati City Rep. Joker Arroyo and Misamis Oriental Rep. Oscar Moreno to suggest whether to have the presidential mistresses summoned or not.

The Arroyo-Moreno team is in charge of prosecuting the bribery charge and another offense having to do with several mansions allegedly owned by the President and his women.

Two of these mansions, one known as Boracay in New Manila, Quezon City, and another in Wack-Wack subdivision in Mandaluyong City, are reportedly worth at least P250 million each.

The President has admitted that he and former actress Laarni Enriquez, with whom he has three children, had rented Boracay from his former housing adviser, Jose Luis Yulo.

But Belmonte expressed disbelief on Yulo’s ownership of the mansion, saying the former presidential adviser had been sued by a local bank for non-payment of about P100,000 in credit card bills.

Belmonte also said the prosecution is open to the suggestion of Sen. Raul Roco for a pre-trial conference between prosecutors and the President’s lawyers.

"We can agree on some issues, like those that are of public knowledge, including the President’s relationship with some women. This will expedite the impeachment trial," he said.

He stressed the prosecution is open to ideas that would speed up the impeachment process.

Rallies will not decide Estrada’s fate

In a related development yesterday, Pimentel said Mr. Estrada’s fate will be decided by the constitutional process of impeachment and not by the so-called parliament of the streets.

Speaking at the Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan alumni homecoming in Cagayan de Oro City, Pimentel said the President could cling on to power and simply ignore the heightening protest rallies, demonstrations and general strikes meant to force his resignation.

Mr. Estrada has said no amount of rallies could unseat him.

Pimentel said Mr. Estrada would hang on and fight the impeachment charges up to the last prosecution witness.

"That is why it looks like there is no other constitutional way to test the validity of the President clinging to power than by subjecting him to the impeachment trial that the Senate is now conducting," Pimentel said.

He said the series of mass actions demanding for the Chief Executive’s ouster, as well as the pro-Estrada rallies, merely cast doubts on the Senate’s ability to render a fair and logical decision on the impeachment case.

Pimentel stressed that as judges and jurors in the impeachment trial, senators have a duty to look for the truth in the accusations specified in the impeachment complaint filed by the House of Representatives.

He said it is their duty to render a guilty verdict if the evidence warrants it, or to acquit the President if the pieces of evidence presented by the prosecution were insufficient.

"It is only by being fair and just that we can face the people and tell them that we have done our best to render impartial justice in the impeachment trial," Pimentel said.

He added that any decision they make will be final and not subject to appeal before the Supreme Court or any other government tribunal.

"We must realize that the rule of law must prevail in the country so that no man or woman is above the law and that every man or women, high or low, is subject to the law," Pimentel said. – With Delon Porcalla, Marichu Villanueva, Marvin Sy