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.