Trial shows Estrada running a 'mafia' style government

By Girlie Linao

MANILA (DPA): Philippine President Joseph Estrada's impeachment trial has given the public a glimpse of how the former movie action star has ran the government like a "gangster" for the past two and a half years, analysts said.

While a verdict is not expected until the middle of next month, analysts said prosecutors have already successfully exposed Estrada's criminal activities and his failure as a leader.

"The impression is that he is running a mafia government," said Alex Magno, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines and president of the Manila-based think tank Foundation for Economic Freedom.

"It cannot be ignored that Estrada has run his government like a gangster," he added.

Prosecutors have until the end of the week to complete their case against Estrada, who is on trial for charges of bribery, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust and violations of the constitution.

But the unfolding picture has already "shattered" Estrada's image as the knight in shining armor that would uplift the lives of the country's more than 20 million poor people.

Worse, analysts said the trial has unmasked a mobster in the country's highest office.

Estrada's woes started last October when a former drinking and gambling buddy accused the president of collecting more than US$8 million in illegal gambling payoffs and pocketing $2.6 million in kickbacks from tobacco taxes.

Provincial Governor Luis Singson has already testified at the Senate tribunal, during which he detailed a complicated protection racket that did not only benefit Estrada but also other government officials and the president's family members.

Many Filipinos initially gave Estrada the benefit of the doubt since Singson has himself been linked to various illegal activities, including smuggling.

But public opinion significantly turned against the embattled president when an executive of the country's third largest bank testified last Dec. 22 that Estrada used a fake name to maintain secret bank accounts.

Prosecutors alleged the bank accounts were used to hide unexplained wealth and to launder illegal money.

Clarissa Ocampo, senior vice president of Equitable PCI Bank, stunned the impeachment court when she testified that she saw Estrada use the alias Jose Velarde in opening a $10-million trust account in February 2000.

Legal experts said Ocampo's bombshell testimony delivered the "knock-out punch" in the trial, with public opinion surveys showing that her revelation had helped convince more Filipinos of the president's guilt.

Prosecutors have continued to throw punches at Estrada, whose questionable dealings include all-night drinking and gambling sessions and interventions in government affairs on behalf of close friends.

On Jan. 11, former finance secretary Edgardo Espiritu told the impeachment court that Estrada admitted earning huge sums from the country's worst insider trading scandal involving a gaming firm owned by a close friend.

Espiritu also testified that the president influenced a state- run bank to grant gaming company BW Resources Corp. a 600-million-peso ($12-million) unsecured loan.

Corporate regulators have accused Estrada of attempting to intervene in investigations on the BW Resources scandal in a bid to exonerate his friend, Dante Tan.

The most damning testimony of Espiritu was his revelation that he resigned from the cabinet in January 2000 because of Estrada's friendship with smugglers, who often attended various functions at the presidential palace.

Espiritu, who helped in Estrada's presidential campaign in 1998, declined to identify the smugglers for security reasons. The veteran banker and his wife have fled the country for the United States due to death threats.

Estrada would be removed from office before the end of his six-year term in 2004 and exposed to possible criminal charges if two thirds of the 22-member Senate find him guilty in any of the four articles of impeachment.

With opposition groups rejecting acquittal as a possible verdict, Ernesto Maceda, the president's spokesman for the trial, appealed to the public not to prejudge Estrada without hearing from the defense.

"If you make a judgment from the prosecution's evidence alone, the verdict would definitely be guilty," Maceda said. "But the defense has not started presenting its counter-evidence. We must hold off judgment until both sides have presented their case."