Estrada asked to take witness stand in trial

Estrada asked to take witness stand in trial

MANILA (DPA): Prosecutors in Philippine President Joseph
Estrada's trial on Sunday renewed a challenge for the embattled
chief executive to take the witness stand and personally deny
bribery and corruption charges against him.

Prosecutors also dared First Lady Luisa Ejercito to explain
how an 8-million-peso ($160,000) cheque from Estrada's self-
confessed bagman for illegal gambling payoffs ended up in her
bank account.

"No one else can deny the charges," said Congressman Joker
Arroyo, one of the 11 prosecutors in the trial, "The president
has to deny and explain the accusations. If he does not testify,
then we have uncontested testimony against him."

Estrada, the first Asian leader to be impeached, is on trial
for bribery, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust and
violations of the constitution.

The case stemmed from accusations by estranged friend and
provincial Governor Luis Singson that Estrada collected more than
$8 million in bribes from operators of an illegal numbers game
and pocketed $2.6 million in tobacco tax kickbacks.

Singson has already testified at the trial and withstood more
than five hours of cross-examination by the defense. Prosecutors
said only Estrada can rebut Singson's allegations.

The president has expressed willingness to testify during the
trial, but has also stressed that the decision would have to be
made by his lawyers.

Attorney Sigfrid Fortun, a lawyer assisting the president's
four-man defense team, said the panel does not yet see the need
for Estrada to take the witness stand.

"There is no evidence so far that would lead to guilt," he
told a weekly television program on Sunday.

Congressman Edmund Reyes, a spokesman for the prosecution
team, however, noted that Singson's testimony and a bank
official's revelation that Estrada used a fake name to maintain
secret bank accounts already prove the president's guilt.

Reyes said the third most damaging evidence against Estrada
was the 8-million-peso cheque received by the first lady from
Singson.

Last Friday, Arroyo told the impeachment court that the
questioned cheque was deposited by Ejercito in her bank account
at Citibank in October 1999.

"She cannot deny that because it's in the records of her bank
account," Arroyo said in his weekly radio program on Sunday. "But
she has to explain what the money was for and how it ended up in
her bank account."

Estrada has lashed out at the prosecution for dragging his
wife into the trial, saying, "The real agenda of the opposition
is destruction, to destroy my family."

"If they could, they would even destroy my mother," he said.
"They want to destroy me and not only me but my entire family."

The president would be removed from office before the end of
his six-year term in 2004 and exposed to possible criminal
charges if two-thirds of the 22-member Senate find him guilty in
any of the four articles of impeachment.

Officials hoped that the trial would be completed by the end
of the month, but prosecutors warned the proceedings could drag
on until late February or March.