Palace: Estrada case up to Sandiganbayan

Malacañang will no longer comment on accusations of former President Joseph Estrada that President Arroyo led a conspiracy to topple him in 2001, saying it will now be up to the government’s anti-graft court to decide on his case.

"Our comment would no longer matter. It is now up to the Sandiganbayan to appreciate Mr. Estrada’s evidence," Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said.

The issue is a legal matter and should therefore be left to state prosecutors handling the plunder case against Estrada, Bunye said. "Everything is now within the sound discretion of the Sandiganbayan."

Estrada’s lawyers sought to prove a conspiracy to oust the former leader by presenting a video showing Mrs. Arroyo saying that some military factions had turned against him in 2000.

Presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor said the evidence being presented by Estrada’s camp was both "factual and fictional."

"Factual in the sense that those events really occurred, fictional in the way it was presented," Defensor said. He did not elaborate.

Earlier, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, who were both members of the opposition at the time Estrada was ousted, said it was unfair and baseless to keep trying to pin a supposed conspiracy against the former president on Mrs. Arroyo.

They said the members of the opposition in the House of Representatives at that time were the ones who worked for the impeachment of Estrada, which eventually led to his ouster by a military-backed popular uprising.

Mrs. Arroyo was shown in the video making a speech in February 2001, a month after Estrada was toppled.

In that speech, Mrs. Arroyo made impromptu remarks about her predecessor’s ouster, saying she was introduced in January 2000 to "a group who already then was working for eventual withdrawal of support" from Estrada.

"I was talking to five different (military) groups and they didn’t know about one another," Mrs. Arroyo said in the video that was shown in the courtroom.

She said the group included one police general who later became the national police chief, possibly Leandro Mendoza, and that their roles contributed to the success of what became known as "EDSA 2" — the bloodless revolt that removed Estrada from power.

Estrada told reporters later that the video only added to "the evidence of conspiracy."

Last week in court, he accused members of the Philippine elite — powerful businessmen, military generals, former President Fidel Ramos and late Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin — of conspiring to topple him because they "could not accept" his landslide poll victory in 1998.

Taking the witness stand for the final day of his direct examination, Estrada said he secured a copy of the video from a member of the Council on Philippine Affairs (COPA).

Defense lawyers said Mrs. Arroyo delivered a speech before COPA members on Feb. 21, 2001 at a hotel in Makati City in which she related her version of events leading to EDSA 2.

In the video, Mrs. Arroyo said she had met with a group consisting of Mendoza, a certain Col. C. B. Garcia and a retired general.

Estrada lawyer Jose Flaminiano told the court that they showed the video to establish circumstantial evidence that Mrs. Arroyo did, in fact, make a speech about the events leading to EDSA 2 and to strengthen the defense panel’s claim that Mrs. Arroyo participated in a conspiracy to oust Estrada.

"There is circumstantial evidence that there was such a speech. We merely wanted to strengthen our position that there was such a speech made by Mrs. Arroyo. We are proceeding cautiously. We do not want to subpoena Mrs. Arroyo. We do not want to provoke an issue," Flaminiano said.

Estrada was elected by a landslide in 1998, but accusations of graft and corruption hounded his presidency.

An impeachment trial against him was aborted in January 2001, and he was then forced out of office.

Estrada insists that his ouster was illegal and that he still enjoys presidential immunity from suit.

He has dismissed as politically motivated charges in the five-year-old trial that he amassed about P4 billion from illegal gambling payoffs, tax kickbacks and commissions, as well as a perjury charge for allegedly underreporting his assets in 1999.