The prosecution dropped a bombshell at the start of Philippine President Joseph Estrada's impeachment trial yesterday, displaying a check for about US$3 million which it said he signed to buy a mansion for a mistress.
While the embattled Estrada followed the proceedings at the Senate on live television, prosecutors in opening statements accused him of running a criminal syndicate from his presidential palace and branded him "a thief" and a "crook."
About 30,000 protesters marched on the Senate building to demand the former movie star's resignation, blowing trumpets from ram's horns in a re-enactment of the biblical story of the crumbling of the walls of Jericho.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Inside, prosecutor Joker Arroyo showed the Senate impeachment court a copy of a check for 146 million pesos which he said was signed by Estrada, albeit in a false name.
Another prosecutor accused Estrada of running a criminal syndicate from the very seat of government power.
"The prosecutors will expose the existence of a criminal syndicate directed from the highest office of the land," prosecutor Sergio Apostol told a hushed court.
"This is the gangland mob that threatens to rule us ... this is the mob that will savage our constitution and the very fabric of our society unless we destroy it now before it destroys us."
The defense likened Estrada to Julius Caesar and decried the "lies and innuendo" which had led many to rush to judgment.
"Unlike in Julius Caesar's case, we are assured that in this forum, judgment will not flee to brutish beasts and reason will not be lost but will attend every aspect and incident of these proceedings," said chief defense attorney Andres Narvasa.
"It is in light of these familiar norms and precepts which we are certain this honorable tribunal will uphold and apply, the respondent, the president of the Philippines, now confidently faces his accusers."
Estrada is threatened with removal from office on charges of bribery, corruption, betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution. He has denied all the charges and has said he will be vindicated at trial.
Prosecutor Arroyo said the check was used to buy a mansion for one of Estrada's mistresses.
"We want you to study that check very closely," he said. "Examine the signature. Then look at the signature of the president on a 500 peso note. You need not be an expert ... there are unmistakable signs that the signature on the check is in the handwriting of the president of the Philippines."
The check, Arroyo said, was made out to a presidential friend who used part of the funds to finance purchases of a company called St Peter's Holdings.
The company bought a 86-million peso mansion in Manila which newspapers have said is occupied by former starlet Laarni Enriquez, who Estrada has acknowledged is the mother of three of his children.
The reports have called the mansion "Boracay" because it has a large swimming pool with artificial waves and surrounding white sands in an attempt to re-create the beaches of the famed central Philippine island.
"It follows that President Estrada provided the funds, as the real and beneficial owner of St Peter's Holdings, to buy Boracay," Arroyo said.
"Imagine the president of the Philippines maintaining a fictitious account? How far can he go? That is how low the president has gone down in bastardizing and prostituting even our banking system," Arroyo said.
He questioned how Estrada was able to purchase that property when his declared net worth for 1999 was only 35 million pesos.
"We cannot have the country run by a thief like him," Arroyo said.
Displaying slides of mansions allegedly bought by Estrada, Arroyo said late dictator Ferdinand Marcos never bought such luxury houses and asked: "I wonder who is the bigger crook."
Presidential spokesman Ricardo Puno told reporters Estrada was "not particularly pleased with the rhetoric" against him.
"You are being insulted and you are being portrayed as wicked. ... Put yourself in his place and see whether you would be prepared to pretend that this is not happening," Puno said, adding that Estrada watched the proceedings on TV at the palace.
"He is eager for the process to start and to finish very, very soon so he can then get back to the main business of running the place," Puno added.
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