Palace: Estrada won’t testify personally

Malacañang has ruled out the possibility of President Estrada taking the stand at the trial, saying his lawyers were convinced that the prosecution evidence is weak.

In a statement, the Palace said the defense team was weighing the options on the President taking the stand, but decided there was no need for it.

The President earlier said he was willing to personally testify at his impeachment trial and face his prosecutors.

Last Friday, his lawyers filed his official denial to the charges and sought his acquittal.

In their 16-page response to the complaint, the lawyers argued that the accusations do not constitute impeachable offenses and insisted that their client has been "faithful to his oath of office."

The President said yesterday he looks forward to next week’s start of the impeachment trial against him in the Senate on charges of bribery, graft and corruption, culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust.

"This is the chance I’ve been waiting for to prove that there is no truth to the charges against me," the President said in his weekly radio-television program.

Mr. Estrada has repeatedly denied the accusations and vowed to fight the impeachment case up to the last witness.

Eleven members of the House of Representatives who will act as prosecutors in the Senate trial which begins on Thursday, have until Wednesday to react to Mr. Estrada’s response.

It needs at least two-thirds vote of the 22 senators to unseat the President who is believed to have a narrow margin of support.

The prosecutors from the House of Representatives have asked the Senate to allow an inspection of several expensive mansions which Mr. Estrada allegedly acquired while in office for the use of his several mistresses.

They also requested subpoenas for a number of witnesses, including presidential son and San Juan Mayor Jinggoy Estrada, bank officials and a woman who allegedly kept records of payoffs from illegal gambling operators.

On Tuesday, the Senate junked a petition by Mr. Estrada’s lawyers to quash the impeachment charges on technicality, saying the House did not vote on the complaint before elevating it to the Senate for trial.

Mr. Estrada cited the dismissal of his lawyers’ motion, saying it was a clear proof that the democratic processes enshrined in the Constitution "have been freely flowing."

The impeachment complaint stemmed from accusations by estranged presidential ally Ilocos Norte Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson who claimed that Mr. Estrada received more than P400 million in bribes from jueteng operators and a kickback on his province’s share of tobacco excise taxes.

"We all wanted justice and I’m certain this will not be denied as long as we respect the spirit and provisions of the Constitution," the President said.

The public clamor for Mr. Estrada’s ouster continued to gather momentum even as he insisted that no amount of protest rallies could compel him to step down.

In a 30-minute special report at the beginning of his program, the President lashed out at his two predecessors, Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos, who joined the chorus for his ouster.

The special report tried to highlight the gains made by his two-year-old administration in combatting corruption and reviving the economy.

Press Undersecretary Michael Toledo said Mr. Estrada would run the government as normally as possible during the trial to dispel criticisms that the political crisis spawned by the jueteng scandal has plunged his 29-month-old administration into a limbo.

"He has told members of the Cabinet not to allow themselves to be distracted by the ongoing political circus or ongoing political crisis, but to focus their attention on the basic problems that the country is facing," Toledo said.

Help speed up trial, Villar tells Estrada lawyers

Former Speaker Manuel Villar Jr. urged Mr. Estrada’s lawyers to avoid delaying tactics "so the historic trial can proceed without further hitches."

"The trial must be allowed to proceed without any more delays so Filipinos may find out the whole truth," Villar said in a statement.

He called on the defense panel to desist from resorting to any form of legal maneuvering that will delay the trial.

Villar stressed that an early resolution of the impeachment case "is the only way to normalize the economic and political climate in the country.

Meanwhile, the House leadership gave assurances that the prosecution team will not run out of funds for the trial, saying they can easily tap the chamber’s P670-million discretionary budget.

Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella announced that P30 million will soon be appropriated to cover the expenses for the impeachment trial.

Fuentebella, who was reportedly threatened with ouster for delaying release of the funds for the prosecution team, said P2 million of the original P5 million allocation was already released.

He said the remaining P3 million will be released as soon as the P2 million has been liquidated.

Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. who sits at the prosecution secretariat, said the budget for the 11-member prosecution team "will be spent wisely and liquidated in accordance with government accounting and auditing rules."

"Every centavo spent in restoring honor to the highest office of the land is money well spent," Andaya said.

He said the minority bloc in the House welcomed Fuentebella’s position that no amount must be spared in carrying out the task of unseating the President through the constitutional process of impeachment.

Members of the prosecution team lead by House Minority Leader Feliciano Belmonte Jr. (Lakas, Quezon City) were scheduled to meet last night to discuss their response to Mr. Estrada’s plea of not guilty.

In a related development, an urban poor leader noted that the movement to force the presidential resignation has been losing steam.

Ronaldo Lumbao, president of the People’s Movement Against Poverty, said the people were already weary of politicking, adding that what the country needs is unity and cooperation.

In a statement, Lumbao also quoted Pulse Asia president and political analyst Felipe Miranda as saying that the protest rallies and demonstrations against the Estrada administration were scaring off investors and "eventually sink the country’s already frail economy."– Liberty Dones