President Estrada not quitting despite threats

President Estrada not quitting despite threats

MANILA (Reuters): Philippine President Joseph Estrada,
hardening his stance not to resign despite threats of an
impeachment trial, said on Tuesday that opponents demanding he
quit over a bribery scandal were hallucinating.

"That's unthinkable," Estrada said. "From the very start I
never thought of resigning...never, never, never. Tell them to
stop imagining things," Estrada told reporters after speaking to
the Marine Corps.

Senior aides said Estrada had toughened on his decision not to
resign after a poll showed that many Filipinos wanted him to hang
on.

"He will take his chances...let his fate be decided by the
impeachment process and we will support him in that,"
presidential spokesman Ricardo Puno said.

Estrada emphasized his resolve to stay in office during talks
with chief critic and former president Fidel Ramos on Monday,
national security adviser Alexander Aguirre said.

An opinion survey by leading pollster Social Weather Stations
about a week ago showed 44 percent disagreed with calls for
Estrada to step down, 29 percent were in favor while 26 percent
said they did not know.

The survey indicated 66 percent of 1,200 people polled opposed
use of "people power" or massive street protests to force Estrada
out of office and 85 percent opposed his removal by means of a
coup d'etat.

"This is what I can say, I don't think just because they are
holding rallies that I would resign," Aguirre quoted Estrada as
telling Ramos. "The peso has strengthened because I am decisive
in not resigning. And the people are supporting me not to
resign."

Lifestyle

The Estrada-Ramos exchange occurred during a closed-door
meeting of the National Security Council where Ramos told Estrada
to mend his ways or step down before Christmas.

"President Estrada should first reform himself (by) changing
his extravagant lifestyle and his unfocused work ethic," Ramos,
seated beside the president, told the meeting, referring to the
former movie actor's reputation of being a womanizer and a heavy
drinker.

Ramos also urged Estrada to answer allegations that he had
received millions of dollars in payoffs from gambling syndicates
running underground lotteries.

"If you cannot do so before mid-December, then resign," Ramos
added, in comments released by the presidential palace.
Estrada, elected to a six-year term by a landslide in mid-1998,
has denied taking bribes from illegal gambling and said he will
welcome an impeachment trial in the Senate, which is likely to
begin later this month.

Palace officials said Estrada had approved a package of
reforms proposed by his ruling coalition in an attempt to halt a
severe erosion of his popular support.

One proposal seeks to ban presidential relatives and people
with "intimacy or close personal relationship" from any business
transactions with the government.

Estrada and his advisers appeared confident he would survive a
Senate trial.

"If the Senate is going to convict him, then I think it's
duty-bound on his advisers to tell him not to go through the
process anymore and go gracefully," Socio-Economic Planning
Secretary Felipe Medalla said.

"But the way it looks now, it doesn't seem that that's going
to be the end result," Medalla added.

At least 15 of the 22 senators have to vote in favor to remove
the president from office. A total of 14 have indicated they are
either opposed to the president or are independent.

Analysts say Estrada can count on no more than five senators
for support and the rest could vote either way.

Vice-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Estrada's potential
successor, is leading the campaign for his ouster and is backed
by the powerful church, two former presidents, almost all major
business groups and scores of congressmen who have defected from
government ranks.

Philippine financial markets, which have slumped sharply since
the allegations against Estrada emerged in early October, surged
on Monday on hopes he would quit soon.

The stock market's main index gained 0.83 percent on Tuesday
in addition to its 16.5 percent leap on Monday. But the peso was
weaker, as corporate dollar demand emerged after it gained almost
three pesos to about 48 to the dollar by Monday evening. It was
weaker than 49 to the dollar by the close of local trading on
Tuesday.