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.