Estrada counsel to seek impeachment dismissal
Estrada counsel to seek impeachment dismissal
MANILA (Agencies): Lawyers for Philippine President Joseph Estrada will seek the dismissal of his impeachment case before it begins next month, a top official said on Wednesday.
Presidential Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora said the dismissal motion would be filed before the lapse of the 10 days the Senate impeachment court had given Estrada to formally answer the corruption charges. The 10 days end on Dec. 1.
"I'm sure the motion to dismiss will be filed in advance of the answer," Zamora told reporters.
He said the president's lawyers would anchor their case on the fact that the House of Representatives rushed its approval of the impeachment charges last week without following procedure.
But it was not immediately clear if the constitution allows for the dismissal of the charges without trial.
Estrada is charged with taking millions of dollars in bribes from illegal gambling syndicates and funds from excise taxes intended for tobacco farmers. He denies the charges.
A two-thirds vote in the 22-member Senate -- or at least 15 -- is required to convict and remove Estrada from office, while he needs eight votes to win acquittal.
Seven senators have bolted Estrada's coalition while two took a leave of absence from the alliance, reducing the number of pro- administration senators to five and throwing the outcome of the trial wide open.
Estrada said on Wednesday he would stop making public comments about the case and just await the outcome.
"I will just do my job...and wait for the trial. I will no longer make any statements," Estrada told reporters on the eve of his departure for Singapore to attend a summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations.
Earlier, Estrada told government employees he had other things to do as president besides "spending precious people's time and giving credence to baseless allegations".
In another development, a daughter of the late Philippine strongman Ferdinand Marcos castigated Estrada on Wednesday for a perceived insult against her father and announced the withdrawal of the Marcos clan's backing for him.
House of Representatives member Maria Imelda "Imee" Marcos said that while the clan would continue to support the institution of the "presidency" as well as constitutional processes, "we will not be -- the Marcoses and all those who helped us -- used by anyone or by any party.
"We are not the problem, and we will not be the alibi," she told a news conference.
Estrada told reporters he was unaware of the Marcos daughter's pronouncement saying: "I have no comment on that."
A spokeswoman for former first lady Imelda Marcos had said earlier on Wednesday that the Marcos family and their supporters were "hurt" by Estrada's reference to the late president as a "dictator" when disavowing an alleged government plot to crack down on street protests.
Imee Marcos acknowledged the "hurt" that her late father's supporters felt "at the relentless insults heaped upon my father's name. There is no doubt that their plaint is not only authentic. It is both resonant and passionate, an issue which is as grave for them as it is for us."
The Marcos family "does not owe any debt of gratitude to any politician, any party, any administration but only to our friends and the loyalists," she added.