‘No way for Estrada to regain power’

A confident President Arroyo belittled yesterday her deposed predecessor Joseph Estrada’s lingering claims to the presidency, and reminded his supporters that he has already "said his farewells."

Speaking to the press in her first news conference at Malacañang, President Arroyo said there is definitely no way her disgraced predecessor could legally reclaim his old post.

"Definitely not," Mrs. Arroyo said when asked if Estrada could still regain power.

The government’s official position was laid in a Department of Justice (DOJ) legal opinion that will be binding unless overturned by the Supreme Court, according to Justice Secretary Hernando Perez.

"There is no basis for Pre-sident Estrada to recover the presidency. He has abandoned his office. He said his farewells. As far as the law is concerned, the former president is a former president," Perez said.

Perez, a former congressman and law professor, said that although Estrada never used the word "resign," his press statement of Jan. 20 was in effect a resignation.

The tenor of the letter was unmistakably that of a resignation as reflected in the phrases the disgraced president used, Perez said when he issued his first legal opinion on Wednesday.

In the four-page legal opinion, Perez said the phrases "leave the Palace" and the "seat of the presidency" showed that Estrada was consciously abandoning his office.

Estrada even gave a valedictory by saying he was thankful for the "opportunities given to him" and that he would not "shirk from future challenges that may come ahead," Perez wrote.

Estrada also said he was leaving his office so that a healing process in the country could begin, he added.

"His press statement clearly evinced his intention to relinquish the presidency and such intention was coupled with the actual relinquishment of the office on that same date," he said.

The DOJ chief dismissed as "obviously an afterthought," the antedated letter of Estrada to Senate President Aquilino Pimentel that Mrs. Arroyo was only an "Acting President."

"In his (Estrada’s) press statement, which was duly signed by him, he did say that he wants the healing process to begin for which reason he was leaving the presidency," he said.

"Once he had resigned, he cannot recover the same anymore. So even if, as an afterthought, he declared that he was only on leave, that will not have no effect whatsoever," Perez added.

"Based on the foregoing, there is no question that Estrada had resigned his position thereby paving the way for the valid assumption by Arroyo," he said.

The DOJ chief said Estrada was in effect overthrown by a popular upheaval, called people power II, which created a vacancy in the Office of the President.

"People power is also predicated on the time-honored principle of salus populi suprema est lex (or, the welfare of the people is above all laws)," Perez said in his legal opinion.

More importantly, the international community recognizes the government of the newly installed President and their diplomatic representatives were even present at her inauguration, Perez added.

Arroyo dismisses Singapore’s Lee

At her press conference, Mrs. Arroyo also dismissed the criticism of Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew that the people power uprising was an undemocratic way of ousting an elected leader with a huge mandate.

"In our Constitution, people power has also been enshrined," the President said in reaction to the published comments of Lee, strongman ruler of Singapore for three decades.

"I think the bottom line is how the markets accepted it," Mrs. Arroyo said, detailing how the stock market and the peso staged strong comebacks on the change in government.

"These are indicators of trust... and that the strengthening of democracy is the prevailing position," the President added.

She noted that she has received calls and letters of praise and support from leaders of democracies, including US President George W. Bush.

Members of the Cabinet also said that the "elected leader with a huge mandate" was ousted for amassing billions of pesos in ill-gotten wealth and subverting laws.

While Mrs. Arroyo said that she is still trying to search for a consensus, her top aides have ruled out proposals to allow Estrada to go into self-exile for the sake of national unity.

Presidential Spokesman Renato Corona said proposals to allow Estrada to leave the country would be contrary to the principle that no one is above the law.

"The exile proposal is contrary to holding him liable. It’s incompatible," Corona said.

The government is encouraging Ombudsman Aniano Desierto to vigorously pursue the corruption charges private persons have filed against Estrada.

Lawyers’ group slams Ombudsman

However, the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), one of the parties to the lawsuit, expressed suspicion that Desierto may not be too keen on pursuing the corruption charges at all.

FLAG member Arno Sanidad said Desierto is trying to slow down the preliminary investigation of the cases against Estrada and his co-respondents so that they would drag on until the elections.

Sanidad recalled Desierto’s handling of the 1995 Kuratong Baleleng case when the Ombudsman downgraded the charges against some respondents who were ranking police officials.

"At most, it will take him one month to finish the investigation. He doesn’t need 60 days," said Sanidad, referring to the 60-day timetable Desierto had announced on Wednesday.

FLAG chairman Jose Manuel Diokno alleged that Desierto filed "defective information" with the Sandiganbayan so that the case would be transferred from the anti-graft court to a regional trial court. The case was eventually dismissed without any trial.

Desierto, however, maintained that he will be impartial and objective in the cases versus Estrada.

"The Office of the Ombudsman will assume an impartial and objective stance in the investigations of the cases," Desierto said in a statement.

At the Palace press conference, Mrs. Arroyo also introduced Cabinet members she has so far appointed

Conspicuously absent was Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado, who was holding a simultaneous media briefing to announce he was quitting over her appointment of retired Gen. Lisandro Abadia as national security adviser.

Mercado, whom Mrs. Arroyo retained after he and Armed Forces chief of staff Angelo Reyes withdrew support of Estrada last Friday and joined the protesters, claimed Abadia was tainted by a military corruption scandal four years ago.

Mrs. Arroyo said Mercado’s resignation made little difference because he had planned to step down by Feb. 12 anyway to run for the Senate.- With reports from Delon Porcalla