Philippine President Joseph Estrada said yesterday he did not report attempts by a former ally to bribe him with millions of dollars because he was too busy.
Estrada said that provincial governor Luis Singson, an old friend who was also a gambling buddy, was part of the illegal lottery syndicate which tried to bribe him.
But Estrada admitted he did not report either the involvement of Singson in the syndicate or the attempted bribery, both of which are punishable under law.
"A president has so [much] work to do," he said. "That is the work of the Philippine National Police."
Singson's allegation last month that he paid some 400 million pesos (about US$8 million) to Estrada has led to a sweeping campaign to force the president's resignation. He is likely to face an impeachment trial in the Senate later this month on the charges.
Estrada also denied fresh charges that he had received kickbacks of one billion pesos from the sale of a stake in domestic telephone firm Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co to Hong Kong's First Pacific Co Ltd.
Former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Perfecto Yasay on Thursday said that Estrada also made money from last year's sharp rise in the share price of gaming firm BW Resources.
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CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
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