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."