Palace: Estrada has 120 bodyguards

Not just 53 but 120.

Malacañang discovered yesterday that ousted President Joseph Estrada has a whole company of soldiers as personal security force.

However, Presidential Spokesman Renato Corona said the Palace will recall the excess troops from the disgraced leader, most of whom came from the elite Presidential Security Group (PSG).

"We heard that it is not only 60 (soldiers) who were assigned to Erap (Estrada). We heard the real number is about 120. I just don’t know who these people are," Corona said.

He expressed belief that Estrada was using the troops for his personal security on the campaign trail.

It was reported earlier that outgoing Armed Forces chief Gen. Angelo Reyes has approved the assignment of 53 soldiers as close-in bodyguards of Estrada, who was unseated by a military-backed people power II last January.

Corona said Reyes’ successor, Lt. Gen. Diomedio Villanueva, will look into the assignment of so many soldiers as bodyguards of Estrada with the view of recalling them to their mother units.

Meanwhile, Philippine National Police (PNP) acting chief Deputy Director General Leandro Mendoza said he would make sure that the former president, if arrested, would be detained in a court-designated jail.

Mendoza said the PNP is merely awaiting arrest orders for the deposed president who faces a host of criminal charges, including plunder which is a capital offense in the country.

"In the event that there is going to be an arrest order, we are ready to support the agencies, particularly the Sandiganbayan, and effect the arrest," Mendoza said in a weekly forum in Greenhills, San Juan.

To head off possible violent confrontation between the Estrada and Arroyo camps, Mendoza said he will tap appropriate units of the PNP.

He cited his men’s readiness to ward off violence when the Supreme Court handed down last March 3 a resolution upholding the legality of the Arroyo administration by a unanimous vote of 13-0.

"Though there was less resistance from anti-Estrada groups that time, our men were on alert. We are more than ready this time," Mendoza said.

He refused to comment about an alleged plan to confine Estrada in an island off the Luzon mainland as a security measure.

"It is up to the Sandiganbayan to decide on Estrada’s place of confinement.

Estrada has said he is ready to be arrested once the plunder cases are filed against him, adding he has been tried and convicted by publicity.–Marichu Villanueva, Christina Mendez