Estrada was pawn in coup plot - Guingona

Deposed president Joseph Estrada would have been the victim of a coup plot against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo because the plan of his followers was to use him as a puppet president in a military junta, said Vice President Teofisto Guingona.

"There is evidence that the arrest and confinement of Estrada was just being used by the political opposition" and they were using the mob to grab power for themselves under a junta, Guingona said at a meeting with various international envoys.

The plan was not to bring Estrada back to power, but only to use him as a puppet, said Guingona who refused to name the leaders of the failed coup plot. However, Justice Secretary Hernando Perez said the people suspected of orchestrating an attempt to storm the presidential palace planned to kill Arroyo and jailed predecessor Estrada. Perez said that the slayings would have allowed the plotters to take over the country.

In another interview, sources said the plan was allegedly the brain-child of Senator Juan Ponce Enrile. Enrile's formidable back-up includes former coup plotter Gregorio Honasan, an Army colonel-turned-senator, and former police chief Panfilo Lacson. The two graduated from the elite Philippine Military Academy in 1971.

The Justice Department has enough evidence against them, said Guingona, but refused to give details. There was a well-coordinated attack on the presidential palace at the tail-end of the five-day protest rallies from Ortigas, Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA), from March 25 to 30, followed by the May 1 attack on the palace, said presidential chief of staff Renato Corona. The opposition leaders made incendiary speeches, which angered the mass base of the protest rallies, said Corona, adding that film-clips of the said speeches would be used as evidence.

The attack on the palace "completes the picture" in the alleged coup plot, said Corona, adding there was strong evidence against those who rode on the protest rallies for their own political ends.

Estrada's draft proclamation of himself as a returning president on leave was "not a criminal offence," said Corona. A legal expert however believes that "it seems that Estrada is being exonerated from the rebellion charges." He said that this could be the reason why Arroyo visited Estrada at his detention cell in southern Luzon.

This was the gist of Guingona's briefing given to the foreign diplomats on the alleged plot which the government revealed days after the pro-Estrada supporters tried to take over the presidential palace.