Thousands mount vigil to block Estrada's arrest
Thousands mount vigil to block Estrada's arrest
MANILA (Agencies): Thousands of supporters of former Philippine president Joseph Estrada formed human barricades near his residence on Tuesday, vowing to protect their fallen idol.
Police meanwhile readied helicopters to pluck him from his home if protesters, mainly from his power base among the country's poor, blocked any court order for his arrest.
Officials said they had mobilized about 3,000 troops, including anti-terrorist commandos, to secure the former leader once the courts issued a warrant for his arrest on a charge of economic plunder -- an offense punishable by death.
Speaking on radio from his high-walled residence in an upscale Manila neighborhood, the 64-year-old former movie actor appealed to his supporters for help in what he called his fight for justice.
"I am calling on our people to defend our Constitution because it is higher than all agencies of government, higher than the president and even higher than the Supreme Court," he said.
"It's up to the people to decide what to do. I cannot stop them... They will act accordingly," Estrada said, referring to his followers' avowed threat to stage massive protests to prevent him being taken to jail.
The country's anti-graft court met in chambers all day to determine if there was enough evidence to warrant ordering Estrada's arrest and trial.
As rumors swept the capital that an arrest warrant was imminent, truckloads of troops armed with assault rifles massed at a nearby police camp to escort arresting officers and secure the route leading to a detention center near Manila where Estrada was presumably to be held to await trial.
Officials said the large security force was prompted by threats from communist rebels to abduct Estrada if the courts failed to prosecute him on plunder and corruption charges.
"Definitely not today," court presiding justice Francis Garchitorena told reporters, when asked when the court would decide whether to arrest the deposed president.
Before then, Estrada had remained secluded with his lawyers, looking "pretty tense", one of them said.
"Oh, praise the Lord," Estrada's lawyer Raymond Fortun quoted him as saying on learning no arrest was forthcoming.
Some 300 metres away, about 6,000 fist-waving, die-hard Estrada loyalists kept a vigil, blocking one of the roads leading to the fashionable neighborhood. "Defend Joseph Estrada," they shouted as a police helicopter whirled overhead.
"We will not allow him to be arrested... We will cling to him if they take him," one woman demonstrator said.
Police officers told Reuters that three helicopters were standing by ready to fly Estrada out of his sprawling mansion if protesters blocked arresting officers.
One of the contingency plans was for airborne commandos to rappel down to his residence and get Estrada, they said.
To avoid confrontation with Estrada's bodyguards, who also include soldiers, the arresting units would wear red-white-blue ribbons as counter-signs, the officers said.
A police spokesman denied Estrada would be handcuffed. "We would give him the courtesy befitting a former president," he said.
Estrada's lawyers said he would turn himself in voluntarily. "We will voluntarily go to the sheriff's office to avoid any violence if they should forcibly implement the arrest warrant," Fortun said.
Estrada has branded the eight criminal charges filed against him as railroaded by a government which wanted to humiliate him.
The plunder charge stems from prosecution allegations Estrada illegally amassed more than four billion pesos (US$80 million) during his 31 months in office.
Special treatment
At least four special jails have been spruced up, including one reportedly with an air-conditioned cell for the ousted leader who has been wrangling for special treatment: no handcuffs, please.
Since his indictment three weeks ago on a non-bailable charge of economic plunder and seven other corruption counts, the prospect of the first arrest of a Philippine president over corruption has fascinated and worried many in this poor Asian country.
"We're prepared for any eventuality," Interior Secretary Jose Lina told a nationally televised news conference with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Estrada's lawyers played down the government's intense preparation, saying he would go peacefully if he faces an arrest warrant.
"He has made preparations, and really, at a moment's notice, he's ready to go directly to the Sandiganbayan to surrender himself," said lawyer Raymond Fortun.
But Estrada, in a radio interview on Tuesday, complained legal procedures were not being followed and warned of a possible uprising.
Asked if he was ready for jail, he replied grudgingly: "I don't expect that. So I have not packed my clothes." Asked if he plans to comply with an arrest order, he said he would consult his lawyers.