Estrada mom weeping constantly

President Estrada continued to put up a brave face yesterday amid accusations hurled against him during his corruption trial but said his mother was weeping constantly over the charges.

In a rare news conference at Malacañang, the Chief Executive said his family is taking the charges very hard.

"Not just my family but my mother, who is 96 years old, has been hit hard. She is constantly crying," he said. "They have hurt my entire family even my beloved mother."

The President said his mother Doña Mary Ejercito had advised him "to pray and pray and pray for those people who have lost their minds."

Mr. Estrada said that his son Jose Victor, or JV, was also deeply affected by such accusations that he had threatened to strike back at his father’s tormentors.

The President said JV was apparently getting carried away by "his youthfulness and the strength of his emotions."

"The boy was just emotional. The insult must have been too deep. That is why I have calmed him down by counseling him that the truth will eventually come out and that there is no need to strike back," Mr. Estrada said.

The President said he expects to be acquitted by the Senate and enjoy retirement with his many children after finishing his six-year term in 2004.

Mr. Estrada said he wanted to be "remembered as the President who championed the cause of the masses" whose 10 million votes propelled him to the presidency in 1998.

Asked if he was not afraid history will remember him as Asia’s first impeached leader, he said, "I’m already impeached, that’s why we have the trial now and I believe I will be acquitted."

He noted that he already achieved many firsts, including being the "first undergraduate, college dropout president."

If he is acquitted, Mr. Estrada said he wanted to spend his retirement with his seven children and his grandchildren. He has three children with First Lady Luisa Ejercito and has acknowledged four others out of wedlock, but is believed to have fathered several others with different women.

"I think by that time I will have grandchildren, whom I will play with. I’ll see to it that all of them, and all of my kids will get the best education," Mr. Estrada said.

The President stands accused of bribery, corruption, betrayal of public trust and violation of the Constitution.

He is charged with receiving hundreds of millions of pesos in bribes from illegal gambling operators, taking kickbacks from tobacco excise taxes and maintaining a lavish lifestyle for his mistresses using suspect funds.

His trial officially opened on Thursday and the Senate impeachment tribunal said it expects to hand down a verdict by mid-January.

Asked by reporters to comment on the trial where prosecutors have vowed to bring out more "explosive" evidence against him, Mr. Estrada replied: "I won’t comment on these matters, no matter how many bombs they explode."

Palace belittles prosecution

Meanwhile, Mr. Estrada’s aides belittled the performance of the prosecutors, saying they appeared unprepared and lack coordination.

"It looked like the prosecution was not fully prepared for their case. In the testimonies, it appeared that they did not have any coordination," Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora said in a radio interview.

Zamora was commenting on the opening day of the trial when the prosecution panel, made up of 11 congressmen, cross-examined former Philippine National Police chief Deputy Director General Roberto Lastimoso.

During the questioning, Lastimoso backed off from his earlier statements that Mr. Estrada had told him to go easy on illegal gambling operators, saying that he only made that assumption.

"It looked like the prosecutor was trying to impeach his own witness," Zamora remarked.

Zamora said Mr. Estrada, who watched the proceedings as they were broadcast live on television, was "very satisfied with his lawyers," adding that in the coming days the public would see that the defense was really prepared for the case.

He also ridiculed the prosecution’s presentation of a check that was allegedly from a hidden bank account of the President, saying "the proper question to ask is whether that check is really relevant to the case (as) defined by the articles of impeachment."

Press Secretary Ricardo Puno praised the President’s two chief lawyers, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Andres Narvasa and former Solicitor General Estelito Mendoza, saying "they really had some powerful statements."

Puno said in a separate radio interview that while Mr. Estrada watched the five-hour broadcast of the opening day of the trial, he would continue with his regular activities rather than follow the case everyday.

In other developments yesterday, former Speaker Manuel Villar cautioned Mr. Estrada on relying on his political friends.

"When politicians tell you they are behind you, that is dangerous," he said.

"The minds of politicians are very hard to read. You can never tell what they will do," he added.

Villar said that he himself was abandoned by his friends in Congress a few hours after he ordered to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate. – Marichu Villanueva, Jose Aravilla, Antonieta Lopez