GMA allies to Erap: Accept your fate

Two allies of President Arroyo in the House of Representatives urged ousted President Joseph Estrada yesterday to accept his fate and focus on his plunder case.

"The issues (surrounding) his ouster are now water under the bridge. It’s time for Erap to accept his fate and let the country move on," said Representatives Federico Sandoval II of Malabon-Navotas and Antonio Cuenco of Cebu City.

The two were commenting on Estrada’s confirmation of reports that while he was president, he received advance warning from confessed Filipino-American spy Leandro Aragoncillo about an alleged conspiracy to oust him supposedly hatched by his vice president at the time, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, along with top military generals.

Sandoval said Estrada should be honest and courageous enough to admit that it was the people’s strong clamor for change that led to his downfall in 2001.

He said the disgraced leader is now pointing an accusing finger at his successor to muddle Aragoncillo’s admission that he passed on classified information to Estrada and other opposition leaders wanting to oust Mrs. Arroyo.

"It’s a futile attempt because the details on the conspiracy against President Arroyo will eventually be unraveled in Aragoncillo’s trial," he added.

Cuenco said Mrs. Arroyo did not conspire with generals to topple Estrada.

"She only made her resign call against Erap when the ouster clamor and protests were already at their peak," he said.

He added that Estrada lost the people’s support because if he had not, "then no conspiracy would have worked against him."

The two Arroyo allies suggested that the former president should just attend to his plunder case.

Aragoncillo has pleaded guilty to charges of spying.

He is accused of pilfering "classified information" about Filipino officials and the political situation here from White House and Federal Bureau of Investigation computers.

The information is supposedly contained in assessment reports submitted by US Embassy officers in Manila to the White House and the State Department in Washington, DC.

In an interview with The STAR on Tuesday, Estrada admitted he knew of alleged meetings between Arroyo, who was then vice president, and top generals.

He said he once confronted his chief of the Armed Forces, then Gen. Angelo Reyes, about the meetings, but that Reyes later told him they were just courtesy calls on the vice president.

He said he ignored the warning about the Arroyo plot because he trusted Reyes and then Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado.

In January 2001, Reyes and Mercado, along with the entire leadership of the Armed Forces, withdrew their support from Estrada. The move precipitated Estrada’s swift fall from power.

The generals showed up at ESDA Shrine with Mrs. Arroyo. Before proceeding there, Mrs. Arroyo reportedly met with them at a friend’s house in Corinthian Gardens, Quezon City.

The content of the e-mail messages that Estrada confirmed receiving from Aragoncillo while he was still in office have not been revealed in the New Jersey court hearings on the spying case.

What has been revealed are the e-mails he sent to Estrada after he was already out of office and to opposition leaders seeking to oust his successor.