Erap: I was too confident

Deposed President Joseph Estrada confirmed yesterday that he had advance warning from confessed US spy Leandro Aragoncillo as early as December 2000 that his then Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was plotting to oust him, but he was confident that they would fail.

"That’s true. But I did not give it weight. I was confident that EDSA II would not happen," Estrada told The STAR in a telephone interview, referring to the military-backed popular uprising that toppled him in January 2001.

Estrada claimed Mrs. Arroyo was moving behind the scenes and meeting with the deputies of then Armed Forces chief Gen. Angelo Reyes, then Armed Forces vice chief of staff Gen. Diomedio Villanueva and then Brig. Gen. Edgardo Espinosa.

"I got that information but I did not pay attention to it because I was overconfident. And I trusted Angie (Reyes) and Orly (Mercado)," Estrada said.

Mercado withdrew his support from Estrada and showed up at the EDSA Shrine at the height of the people power revolt.

Estrada said he still asked Reyes "to find out if these (reports) were true" even though they were already verified.

"And when Angie came back to me, he told me ‘it was just courtesy calls to the vice president,’ Estrada quoted Reyes as saying.

Reyes and Mercado defected at the height of the popular protests against Estrada and joined Mrs. Arroyo at the EDSA Shrine on Jan. 21, 2001.

Their withdrawal of support was one of the crucial moments that led to Estrada’s downfall.

After retiring from the service, Reyes first served as Mrs. Arroyo’s defense secretary until a mutiny in July 2003 prompted him to resign following accusations of corruption.

He was appointed interior secretary that same year. He now serves as Mrs. Arroyo’s environment secretary following a Cabinet reshuffle.

Villanueva was subsequently named Armed Forces chief while Espinosa was appointed director of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office after he retired from the military.

Espinosa was appointed despite his implication in the anomalous purchase of Kevlar helmets for the Philippine Marines.

During his stint as interior secretary, Reyes sought reconciliation with Estrada, who stood as godfather at the wedding of one of Reyes’s sons.

Reyes yesterday confirmed to The STAR reports about his meeting with Estrada regarding Mrs. Arroyo’s meetings with the generals.

"Yeah, it happened that way but I could not recall the exact identities of the persons concerned," Reyes said. "I confirmed that report because that was the same thing reported to me, that it was just a customary courtesy call to the vice president by these people in the military."

Reyes insisted that he was never a party to any military conspiracy to oust Estrada.

"My story here is I did not conspire with anybody on that thing. But at that point, a decision had to be made and I made it at that point," he stressed. "But prior to that, I did not conspire with anyone."

Aragoncillo, an analyst at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a former White House aide, is accused of stealing classified information from the US government and passing it on to opposition leaders in the Philippines, including Estrada and opposition Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson.