Erap wishes Chavit a happy birthday

They may no longer be drinking buddies but deposed President Joseph Estrada still has some kind words for his nemesis, Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson, who turned 65 yesterday.

"Well, I wish him the best of luck, and happy birthday," Estrada told reporters at the resumption of his trial at the Sandiganbayan in Quezon City yesterday.

"Mayroon din naman kaming pinagsamahan," a spokesman for Estrada quoted the ousted leader as saying during a radio interview.

For his part, Singson said his birthday wish was "to see the end of the ousted leader’s plunder trial at the Sandiganbayan."

Singson is the government’s principal witness in the trial. His allegations of corruption against Estrada sparked the popular leader’s downfall in January 2001.

Singson had alleged in October 2000 that Estrada was running an illegal gambling protection racket during his presidency and had amassed billions of pesos in payoffs stashed in a secret bank account under the alias "Jose Velarde."

Singson later claimed that Estrada wanted to have him killed.

His accusations of illegal gambling payoffs to Estrada became the basis of an impeachment complaint that hurdled the House of Representatives after a contentious debate with pro-Estrada lawmakers.

But the trial in the Senate was aborted when senators allied with Estrada voted to suppress evidence.

The Senate vote to keep a controversial envelope containing bank documents sealed triggered public outrage and street protests that eventually turned into a military-backed popular uprising that ousted Estrada.

Estrada has professed innocence and claims his ouster was illegal. He accuses society’s elite, Roman Catholic bishops, some generals and political enemies of conspiring to remove him, claiming they could not accept his 1998 victory.

Estrada was elected by a landslide in 1998, but accusations of graft and corruption hounded his presidency.

During the prosecution phase of the trial, defense lawyers tried to destroy Singson’s credibility by portraying him as a corrupt politician who had an ax to grind.

Singson and Estrada were drinking buddies who spent hours playing mah-jongg well into the night.

But they later had a falling out when they had a disagreement over how to run the illegal gambling protection racket. The last straw was when close Estrada associate and alleged jueteng baron Charlie "Atong" Ang tried to have him assassinated.

In a series of press conferences in 2000, Singson openly accused Estrada of taking payoffs from jueteng barons, misusing a government funding subsidy meant for tobacco farmers in his province, among other allegations.

Testifying earlier in court, Estrada has denied as politically motivated the charges in the five-year-old trial that he amassed about P4 billion from illegal gambling payoffs, tax kickbacks and commissions, as well as a perjury charge for allegedly underreporting his assets in 1999.

He accused members of society’s elite — powerful businessmen, military generals, former President Fidel Ramos and late Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin — of conspiring to topple him because they "could not accept" his 1998 landslide poll victory due to his buffoonish image as a gambler, a drunk and a womanizer.

Estrada denied charges that he laundered millions of pesos in the Jose Velarde account but admitted that he signed the bank documents. Estrada claimed that his friend and co-accused Jose Dichaves owned the account.