Philippines asks 11 govts to deny Estrada asylum

Philippines asks 11 govts to deny Estrada asylum

MANILA (AFP): The Philippines has asked 11 countries and territories including the United States to deny political asylum to deposed leader Joseph Estrada, officials said on Friday.

The governments of Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Palau, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand, as well as the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau, had been contacted by the foreign department, diplomatic sources said.

The sources said embassy or consulate officials were summoned to the foreign department office to alert them to the possibility that Estrada could seek sanctuary to avoid possible arrest for alleged corruption.

The envoys were asked to inform Manila "if they have any information on any request by Estrada's camp," and to refuse him entry, one source said.

Justice Secretary Hernando Perez said he met separately with U.S. embassy charge d'affaires Michael Malinowski and other officials including a legal attache from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

He told reporters the Americans "couldn't give us an assurance" that Estrada would be extradited if he fled to the United States.

"The problem is there are countries which don't allow extradition if the cases are punishable by death. When I asked them, they couldn't give a definite answer," Perez said.

He wants to put Estrada on trial for massive corruption. Among the cases being readied are for plunder, which is punishable by death.

He said he asked the foreign department "to get in touch with our neighbors and ask them not to grant political asylum to the former president."

Estrada was toppled in a military-backed popular revolt last year. The Supreme Court ruled last week that he was no longer the Philippine president, and thus could not claim immunity from arrest.

Press reports said Estrada had since asked Bandar Seri Begawan, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Washington for political asylum, although his family and the governments involved all denied that an approach had been made.

Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Thailand as well as the United States have extradition treaties with Manila.

President Gloria Arroyo plans to file charges against Estrada for extortion, embezzlement, receiving bribes from illegal gambling lords and shielding friends from government regulators. "The number of charges may reach 13," Perez said.

Meanwhile, Estrada said on Friday that he had been talking with army soldiers who were dissatisfied with Arroyo.

"I know about that because we have been talking to a lot of lower-ranking members of the armed forces who did not know about the withdrawal of support from me," Estrada said on radio station DZEC when asked about military unrest.

Several Manila newspapers on Friday released an open letter by a shadowy military group calling itself the Young Officers Union (YOU).

The letter warned Arroyo that they would move against her unless she took action on so-called leftists in sensitive government positions and over alleged graft cases against her allies.

Arroyo aides dismissed the reported threat.

"That is just foolishness," Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita said, adding that "I don't really believe there is a YOU."

Ermita recalled that a group with that name had been involved in some of the coup plots against then-president Corazon Aquino in the late-1980s. But he said the group in 1995 signed an accord to abandon its destabilization efforts.