Estrada wants acquittal for Christmas gift

President Estrada is hoping to be acquitted of corruption and other charges by Christmas, but insisted yesterday that he will not change his style of leadership.

"As far as I’m concerned I want this to end before Christmas," he told reporters two days before his trial opens in the Senate. Mr. Estrada entered a not guilty plea last week.

The House of Representatives impeached him last Nov. 13 for bribery, corruption, culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust.

The dominant Roman Catholic Church said that by allegedly taking bribes, embezzling tobacco taxes, building lavish homes for his mistresses and pressuring regulators to exonerate a businessman friend under investigation for insider trading, Mr. Estrada has lost the moral authority to govern.

His constitutional successor Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as well as former Presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos and big business have joined calls for his resignation.

Mr. Estrada’s Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP), on the other hand, warned business groups "against unduly influencing the impeachment process" by holding protest actions.

PMP vice president Ronaldo Puno said their party "will fight any efforts to unduly influence the impeachment process or to bully or bamboozle senators into bending their demands for the removal of President Estrada."

Puno warned that "if the impeachment trial is stampeded by the Makati Business Club, politicized members of the clergy and their united opposition minions into becoming a lynching exercise, we will seriously evaluate the actions that we must then take." He did not elaborate.

As senators prepared for the hearing tomorrow, former Speaker Manuel Villar asked the people to be "eternally vigilant" to "ensure that they do not stray from their sworn duty to hear the case with utmost objectivity."

"Filipinos must work together to ensure the integrity of the process," he added.

Villar also reminded the senators that they are being watched and relied on by the people to make the right decision.

"Regardless of the outcome, the decision of the Senate has to be acceptable for it to be credible," he said.

One of those privileged to watch the hearing is Enrique Zobel, a wheelchair-bound businessman who was allowed to have a front row seat.

"I want to see for myself how the impeachment proceedings will be conducted. It is for us Filipinos to show the senators that we are interested because their decisions will have consequences in our history," he said.

"The senators must show us that the hearings are conducted without partisanship, within the ambit of the Constitution, and above all, are transparent and above board," he said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, one of the jurors, opposed a plan by the defense panel to speed up the trial by limiting the scope of the case to only one of the four articles of impeachment laid by Congress.

Under the scheme, the prosecution and the defense would choose one article of impeachment through a raffle, present their evidence and then let the jurors decide on this specific charge.

If the President is acquitted, the other charges against him would not be pursued. If he is convicted, he is of course automatically removed from office.

Biazon said adopting a "winner take all" formula would downgrade the impeachment tribunal into a gambling den, where fortunes of players are determined by a game of chance.

"If that happens, the impeachment proceeding could be likened to a game of Russian roulette, where a player can kill himself if he pulls the trigger of his revolver," he said. – With reports from Perseus Echeminada, Sandy Araneta