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.