Estrada set for new prison as Arroyo warns his supporters
Estrada set for new prison as Arroyo warns his supporters
MANILA (AFP): Jailed ex-Philippine president Joseph Estrada
underwent a medical check-up Saturday ahead of his transfer to
another prison as his successor warned supporters protesting his
detention that armed forces would meet "any challenge".
The 64-year-old former movie star was taken after breakfast
from his cell in the Camp Crame police headquarters by helicopter
to a military hospital enroute to his new prison.
Police were granted permission in a court hearing Friday for
the transfer amid fears that tens of thousands of his protesting
supporters would storm the police headquarters.
His followers have demanded his release and reinstatement as
president. Estrada was ousted in a military-led popular uprising
in January that installed President Gloria Arroyo.
In her first statement on the street protests on Saturday,
Arroyo warned that the armed forces and the police "are squarely
behind this administration and are prepared to meet any challenge
to the constitution."
A stern-looking Arroyo said over national television that she
would exercise maximum tolerance in dealing with the pro-Estrada
demonstrations but gave a warning to "those who may be thinking
of taking advantage of the situation to further their selfish
political agenda."
Estrada supporters have been on the streets since he was taken
away from his home under heavy guard and placed in custody
Wednesday pending his trial on charges of plundering the country
of US$80 million.
They had assembled at a historic Roman Catholic shrine on
Manila's main thoroughfare, just two kilometers away from
Estrada's old cell at Camp Crame police headquarters.
A former Estrada aide Ronaldo Puno said the ex-president was
examined by government doctors and his own private doctor at the
military hospital.
Puno said he did not know if Estrada would stay at the
hospital overnight or whether he would be flown to his new
detention center at a special police training camp in Santa Rosa
town, 70 kilometers south of Manila.
His new prison is a comfortable bungalow, far removed from the
3.5 meter by 5.5 meter cell at Camp Crame and has such amenities
as a refrigerator, air-conditioning, television, video cassette
recorder, two bedrooms with large beds and thick mattresses, two
bathrooms and a kitchen.
The center does however have some prison characteristics. The
windows of all have bars and no curtains so the guards can keep
an eye on the prisoner, ABS-CBN television reported.
Estrada would be deprived of his cellular phone.
Estrada allies had complained bitterly about the "sub-human"
conditions of his original cell which only had a foldaway cot
with a thin mattress, a bathroom and a corner desk.