Estrada faces impeachment as Congress meets on Monday

Estrada faces impeachment as Congress meets on Monday

MANILA (Agencies): President Joseph Estrada appeared on Sunday almost certain to become the first Philippine president to be impeached when Congress starts a debates on Monday on charges that he took bribes from gambling syndicates.

Opposition leaders said on Sunday they were confident Estrada would be impeached even as the Filipino leader vowed to hang on to power and prove his critics wrong.

House of Representatives member Heheson Alvarez, secretary general of the opposition LAKAS party, said Estrada dug his own grave when he admitted last week that gambling bosses had deposited millions to a bank account controlled by his lawyer.

"I think Justice (Andres) Narvasa is having a headache with what Estrada has said. He basically testified against himself," Alvarez told DZBB radio, referring to the former Supreme Court chief justice who would be leading the president's defense.

He said 115 House members had already signed the impeachment motion and that he expected it to sail through a plenary debate on Monday. Only 73 members or one-third of the 218-seat House is required to bring the impeachment motion to the Senate, where members would then sit as jurors in the trial.

An opposition alliance, however, voiced fears that pro- administration lawmakers might derail an impeachment vote in the House of Representatives by demanding a reorganization of the House leadership and installing a new Speaker.

"Many of the opposition groups fear that the process may be overwhelmed by political sabotage," the KOMPIL alliance said in a statement.

Passage of the impeachment resolution would mean formal indictment of the president.

The session is to begin at 4 p.m. (3 p.m. Jakarta time) and congressman said debate on the motion could last several hours.

Under the constitution, only the Senate, where the ranks of Estrada supporters have shrunk to precarious levels, has the power to convict and remove a president from office.

"We will definitely pass the impeachment resolution on Monday...before the day is over. You can have my word," Assistant House Majority leader Francis Escudero said, dismissing charges that Estrada's coalition would delay the vote.

The influential Roman Catholic church, big business groups and Vice-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo have called for Estrada's resignation since provincial governor Luis Singson said he had personally handed Estrada about 400 million pesos ($8 million) from illegal gambling syndicates.

Estrada said he was offered money by Singson but did not take it. He said did not report the bribery attempt to the police because he was too busy.

Estrada flew on Sunday to Ilocos Norte, home province of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, and told thousands of cheering supporters he was determined to finish his six-year term, which ends in 2004.

Sharing the stage with former first lady Imelda Marcos and two Marcos children, one of whom is the provincial governor and the other a congresswoman, Estrada said the charges were fomented by an elite who had never accepted him as president.

"I will prove (them) wrong," he said.

The beleaguered leader showed he still had massive drawing power when a crowd of over one million people jammed Manila's Rizal Park on Saturday in a prayer rally in his support.

The show of support dwarfed a protest by over 100,000 people in Manila a week earlier demanding his resignation.

"Unrest in the country won't stop even with a million people gathering in Rizal Park to pray for the President," the Philippine Star newspaper said in an editorial on Sunday.

Estrada's impeachment became all but inevitable when Speaker Manuel Villar and dozens of congressmen defected from his coalition and endorsed the impeachment case.

Estrada says he is confident. "It's just like in the movies," he said last week. "The hero gets beaten up in the beginning but still wins in the end."