‘Estrada’s mistresses must not be called’

Leave the women alone.

A member of the House of Representatives’ prosecution team in the impeachment trial at the Senate said yesterday it would not be a sound legal move to hale the presidential mistresses to the hearings.

"We are here not to mess up things and this (summoning President Estrada’s women) is messy," Makati City Rep. Joker Arroyo said at a weekly forum in Quezon City.

He added that the prosecution panel wants to maintain the moral high ground in pursuing its mission.

If at all, Arroyo said only one of Mr. Estrada’s many mistresses would be summoned to testify at the trial if her testimony would be vital to any of the four articles of impeachment filed against the President.

The impeachment complaint filed by the House before the Senate cited Mr. Estrada for alleged bribery, culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption and betrayal of public trust.

House Minority Leader Feliciano Belmonte Jr. (Lakas, Quezon City) has said the 11-member prosecution team was still trying to figure out if asking the presidential mistresses to take the stand would be good for their case.

"If we determine that we can elicit new testimonies or information from them, then we will have them summoned," Belmonte said.

He said if the prosecutors’ figured no significant information could be culled from the women, they would not be subpoenaed.

"But definitely, we will not ask for their appearance (at the trial) just to embarrass them or the President," Belmonte stressed.

At yesterday’s forum, Arroyo also assured the people that not even the forthcoming elections would distract the prosecutors from diligently pursuing their task.

He expressed confidence, however, that they would be able to complete the impeachment proceedings against Mr. Estrada before the deadline for the filing of certificates of candidacy for the May 2001 polls.

"I don’t think it (election) will stop us," Arroyo said.

The Makati congressman also sounded optimistic that the evidence they had prepared would be enough to attain a conviction.

At least three of the 11 prosecutors are in their third and last term as congressman and are eyeing a senatorial slot in the forthcoming elections.

With the filing of their certificate of candidacy, they would be deemed automatically resigned from the congressional post and would necessarily have to leave the prosecution panel.

Meanwhile, a mock impeachment trial held in Davao City found Mr. Estrada guilty as charged.

The mock hearing, dubbed "Kongreso sa Kamindanawan," was held at the Ateneo de Davao High School campus in Barangay Matina and was attended by some 3,000 anti-Estrada residents and officials.

"You are hereby removed from office as final judgment," declared lawyer Carlos Zarate, who portrayed Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., amid wild cheers from spectators.

A man clad in barong tagalog and wearing an oversized Estrada mask was then led out of the stage by a security officer, capping the mock trial.

Former Bureau of Internal Revenue commissioner Liwayway Vinzons-Chato, former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Perfecto Yasay Jr. and former Maguindanao congressman Michael Mastura who took part as prosecution witnesses expounded on the purported evidence that pinned down Mr. Estrada on the articles of impeachment.

Nine sectoral representatives who sat as jurors explained their individual guilty verdict.

Moro Islamic Liberation Front technical committee chairman Moner Bajunaid said Mr. Estrada was also found guilty of creating war in Mindanao.

"We, the Moro people, find Mr. Estrada guilty of bringing war to Mindanao. He is guilty of the displacement of thousands of Moro people and the loss of lives of thousands of others as a result of his all-out war policy," Bajunaid said.

Participants to the congress later held a workshop where they drew up plans for a Mindanao-wide protest action to force Mr. Estrada to step down. - With Edith Regalado