Byline: Uli Schmetzer
MANILA, Philippines _ Will the real president of the Philippines please stand up.
"I am the duly elected president," Joseph Estrada said Wednesday. "They forced me out. Now they want me to go abroad. But I will never leave you," the former actor told his cheering supporters.
"I will crush you," warned Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the former vice president who was sworn in 12 days ago as president of the Philippines after a mass street revolt against Estrada.
The political dilemma threatens to become a constitutional battle that might drag on for years and further damage a country already suffering from poverty, an empty national treasury and a lack of foreign investors' confidence.
Estrada's removal, engineered by popular demand and backed by the armed forces, was always open to different legalistic interpretations. This week, Estrada's lawyers filed a lawsuit challenging the Supreme Court's constitutional right to oust him and swear in Arroyo.
The lawsuit argues that the president did not resign and had no chance to defend himself against allegations of "economic plunder," a euphemism for fraud and corruption.
Since her swearing-in ceremony, Arroyo has used every opportunity to show her nation and the world she is fully in control.
She has addressed restless troops three times. When President Bush called to congratulate her, she made sure the phone call was broadcast to the rest of the country. That upset the U.S. State Department, but it impressed Filipinos.
While Arroyo shored up support, Estrada sulked in his suburban villa. He refused to see anyone except family members and close friends.
Estrada sought sanctuary from the public after he was ousted and escorted by security guards through the back door of the presidential palace. At the palace's front gate, an angry mob was calling him a thief.
Like the scripts of his movies in which the discredited hero makes a defiant comeback, Estrada came out of seclusion Wednesday to face hundreds of cheering supporters banging against the tinted window of his van. Many had tears in their eyes.
"Let it be clear, I left Malacanang to prevent bloodshed," he told them, referring to the presidential palace. In a short speech to party members later, he referred to Arroyo as "the acting president" and
said he was fit and ready to resume a mandate he won three years ago with a landslide victory at the polls.
The reappearance of the former matinee idol has rattled Philippine stock markets and currency exchanges.
While he is no longer the screen hero for millions of uneducated Filipinos, Estrada still has many followers among the nation's poor and among disgruntled officers in the armed forces.
Both friends and foes, however, believe Estrada wants a deal rather than to return to the presidency.
"He wants to save his wealth and he wants immunity from prosecution on charges of economic plunder, a crime that can carry the death sentence," said one of his former associates.
Estrada's public appearance Wednesday came less than a day after investigators alleged that he stashed up to $300 million in 16 different bank accounts under six false names. All of this allegedly occurred during his 31 months in office.
Unfortunately for Estrada, a succession of his former Cabinet ministers have contacted investigators in recent days to say they are willing to testify against him _ apparently in return for immunity.
Witnesses have told of taking shopping bags filled with proceeds from illicit gambling rackets directly to Estrada. Descriptions of all-night drinking sessions that included the former president have become commonplace, so have suggestions of multimillion dollar accounts held by mistresses and the luxury villas and cars Estrada allegedly doled out to trusted friends.
With the prospect looming of a protracted legal battle, for her own political survival Arroyo might have to compromise on her pledge to let the full force of the law deal with the misdemeanors of her predecessor.
X X X
(c) 2001, Chicago Tribune.
Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at http://www.chicago.tribune.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
No comments:
Post a Comment