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.