Estrada plans warm welcome for Anwar's wife
Estrada plans warm welcome for Anwar's wife
MANILA (Agencies): President Joseph Estrada will throw open the doors of the Philippine presidential palace to Malaysian opposition figure Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to show that the Philippines is a "free country," official sources said on Tuesday.
Sources close to the president said Estrada would receive the wife of Malaysia's jailed ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim at the guest house of the Malacanang presidential palace on Thursday, the second day of her three-day visit here.
Azizah, who has become an opposition figurehead since the arrest of her husband, is to arrive here on Wednesday, hoping to take her crusade for political reforms in Malaysia to a wider audience.
Former Philippine president Corazon Aquino, who has invited Azizah, is to greet her at the airport, an aide told AFP.
Aside from meetings with Estrada and Aquino, Azizah is scheduled to have dinner with congressional leaders, speak before a civic group, hold a news conference and meet students and human rights groups.
She will also give a lecture on Philippine national hero Jose Rizal, whom her husband once described as a hero of the entire Malay race.
Earlier on Tuesday Estrada, who has called Anwar a "very good friend," chided Kuala Lumpur for opposing Azizah's visit. "We have to prove to them that we are a free country," the president told reporters during a visit to the central island resort of Boracay.
A Philippine embassy official told AFP in Kuala Lumpur that Ambassador Jose Brillantes had been summoned to the Malaysian foreign ministry on Monday.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said earlier Kuala Lumpur wanted to "express our unhappiness with the planned visit by Azizah."
"Malaysia views seriously attempts by any country to give her an opportunity to express her political agenda," he said.
In another development, Malaysian prosecutors said on Tuesday they would pursue one sodomy charge against Anwar, but asked a court to postpone considering five other counts against him.
Attorney-General Mohtar Abdullah asked the Kuala Lumpur High Court to put off consideration of the five postponed counts -- one over alleged corruption and four over sodomy -- until a date to be determined.
Anwar pleaded not guilty to the charge of sodomizing his family's former driver, Azizan Abu Bakar, in May 1992.
"Not guilty. Malicious prosecution," Anwar, wearing an open collared white shirt and blue pants, told the court. Turning to reporters, he said: "Malicious prosecution. You quote that."
Judge Abdul Wahab Patail said the court would set a date for the sodomy trial on May 4. The date of the alleged offense was changed to 1992 from 1994 at Tuesday's session.
"Why did they change this?" Azizah asked after the session. "This is really a question to be asked."
After he was sacked by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in September, Anwar was charged with five counts each of corruption and sodomy. He denied all of the charges, saying they were politically motivated.