Trial shows Estrada running a 'mafia' style government

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."