Estrada mulls suing NGO over graft allegations
Estrada mulls suing NGO over graft allegations
Associated Press, Manila
Disgraced former President Joseph Estrada said on Friday he was consulting his lawyers on possible legal action against a global watchdog group that identified him as one of the world's 10 most corrupt former leaders.
Estrada ranked No. 10 on the Transparency International list, which also includes late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Speaking to a local radio station from military detention, Estrada denied the charge that he plundered about US$77 million. He has been on trial on corruption charges since being toppled during massive street protests in 2001.
"The accusation has no basis, because up to now the case is still being tried," he told Manila radio DZBB. "I have nothing to do with the charges being leveled against me."
Prosecutors have used dozens of witnesses to detail a lavish lifestyle of a president with a reputation for womanizing and drinking, while portraying himself as a champion of the poor. They allege Estrada amassed about 4 billion pesos ($77 million) in illegal gambling payoffs, tax kickbacks and under-the-table commissions siphoned into secret bank accounts, then used to buy palatial homes.
"That is the accusation of the current government to destroy me before the people," Estrada said. "They already presented 76 witnesses, but the prosecution has failed to show that I have any connection to that."
"If I were guilty, I would have already fled the country, and I would have no case and I would be in the U.S. or Europe having a grand time, but I chose to face the charges because I know I have not done wrong," he said.
Estrada said he called his lawyers on Friday morning, a day after the Berlin-based Transparency International released the list, to inquire about the possibility of legal action. He did not elaborate.
Ex-dictator Marcos was No. 2 on the list behind former Indonesian leader Soeharto. Third was former Zaire President Mobutu Sese Seko.
Marcos, toppled in 1986 after 20 years of iron-fisted rule during which thousands of people were imprisoned, tortured or disappeared, embezzled between $5 billion and $10 billion, Transparency International said.
The Philippine government has received $684 million of Marcos' alleged ill-gotten wealth from Swiss bank deposits after the Supreme Court ruled that Marcos and his widow, Imelda, "failed to justify the lawful nature" of the acquisition of the funds. The court said they legally earned only about $300,000.
Imelda Marcos and the president's children could not immediately be reached for comment.