Senate begins Estrada impeachment trial

The Philippine Senate began its impeachment trial of President Joseph Estrada yesterday, with prosecutors charging he took millions of dollars in kickbacks through a "criminal syndicate directed from the highest office of the land". Police were out in full force, keeping at bay thousands of pro- and-anti Estrada groups outside the Senate where the prosecution dropped a bombshell at the start of the trial displaying a cheque for $3 million which it said he signed to buy a mansion for a mistress.

Prosecutors also told the country's Senate at the start of the unprecedented corruption trial that Estrada is a thief who has run the Philippines like a gangland boss. "We cannot have a country run by a thief like him," Congressman Joker Arroyo declared in the prosecution's opening statement.

The prosecution presented a cheque under the name of 'Jose Velario', allegedly Estrada's secret name which he used to pay a holding company that was put up by his lawyer and eventually headed by a dummy, his business associate, to cover his purchase of a luxurious real estate property worth $2.8 million in suburban Quezon City last year. "You need not be an expert to see the similarity. There are unmistakable signs that the signature in that cheque is the signature in the handwriting of the president of Philippines," Arroyo said.

He said the misdeed could be categorised as graft and corrupt practices, one of the articles of impeachment filed by the opposition in the lower house of Congress last November 13. "The president also committed perjury and offences of unexplained wealth because records showed that he and his wife and mistresses and their children have other interests in other companies other than the three firms listed in his 1998 statement of assets," Arroyo stated.

The prosecution also presented former police chief Roberto Lastimoso, who said that in 1998, Estrada summoned him to the presidential palace and instructed him to "coordinate" with Ilocos Sur Governor, Luis Singson, a known operator of jueteng, an illegal number game, in northern Luzon. "I understood that he wanted me to ease up in the ongoing operation against jueteng lords," said Lastimoso, the first to appear at the senate as a witness.

Presented in court was a directive from Lastimosa, dated July 1998, which called on all police regional commanders to arrest all jueteng lords, as ordered by Estrada. A second witness, alleged auditor to Estrada, Yolanda Ricaforte, identified a ledger which became evidence against her former boss. It contained lists of how the gambling payoff was distributed to Estrada, his relatives, and subordinates.

Estrada's lawyers, who presented general argument at the senate, said the president could not have abetted jueteng because he had worked for its legalisation in 1999. The former movie star, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption, culpable violation of the constitution and betrayal of public trust, was not present. Estrada is also accused of bribery, which includes receipt of an estimated $8.7 million payoff from gambling lords and a $2.7 million kickback from the $4.2 million tobacco excise tax intended for tobacco farmers.

Estrada cancelled his only schedule yesterday to watch on television the two damning pieces of evidence presented against him by the prosecution at the start of his trial at the senate.