Lifestyles of the rich: How Estrada won P120 M in mah-jongg

Talk about a floating casino.

Giving more glimpses into President Estrada’s lifestyle, Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson claimed yesterday that Mr. Estrada once won P120 million in one of their many mah-jongg games aboard the presidential yacht.

And who were the other players in that game?

Aside from himself and the President, Singson said the other two players were businessman William Gatcha-lian, presidential adviser on overseas Filipino workers, and Mark Jimenez, Manila Times’ owner and a fugitive wanted in the United States for fraud and illegal contributions to the Democratic party, among others.

Singson said he once won P50 million, and Gatchalian and Jimenez were the biggest losers. The Ang Pangulo was docked in Cebu at the time, Singson added.

However, Singson refused to reveal how high the bets were.

It was from his winnings that Senators Teresita Aquino-Oreta and John Osmeña got their controversial P1 million balato (cash gift), Singson said.

Oreta and Osmeña each returned a check for P1.2 million, representing the P1 million plus interest, after Singson publicly accused the President of raking in millions in bribes from illegal gambling operators.

They thought after his expose that the money came from jueteng operations.

It did not, Singson insisted. "The problem with these two is that they did not let me explain and returned the cash thinking it was jueteng money," he said.

Oreta and Osmeña said Singson gave them the money after they complained during a conversation with Singson aboard the yacht about the expenses they incur in helping their constituents.

Mr. Estrada told Singson to give the two senators balato, Singson said. He did have his check book at that time so he wrote out two checks from a bank account where he and Mr. Estrada allegedly keep jueteng proceeds, Singson said.

He then recorded the checks in a ledger detailing jueteng payoffs – that included those allegedly to President Estrada – as "Tessie," referring to Oreta, and "Sonny," referring to Osmeña.

"I had to record it in the ledger because the President checks it every 15 days and I have to be reimbursed," Singson said.

Singson said he bought a P7-million yacht with his winnings. "I wanted to name it Siete-Pares but the President preferred Escalera," he said.

He made the admission in response to allegations of presidential friend Charlie "Atong" Ang, that he has unexplained wealth, including a plane and a helicopter.

He said he bought the plane a long time ago but denied owning a helicopter. He also admitted owning a two-man mini-submarine.

Lifting the veil on Mr. Estrada’s lifestyle even more, Singson claimed that Mr. Estrada invested part of his alleged bribes from illegal gambling lords in several businesses.

These included the Fontana casino at the former Clark US air base in Pampanga, he said.

Mr. Estrada has been busy investing in businesses ever since he started receiving kickbacks from illegal gambling lords in 1998, Singson alleged.