Singson recounts payoffs to Estrada

The man who triggered Philippine President Joseph Estrada's impeachment trial testified for the first time yesterday, recounting how he handed monthly gambling payoffs to the former actor and presidential aides. Provincial Governor Luis Singson, Estrada's former drinking buddy and self-confessed bagman, alleged that the president organised the racket shortly after he assumed office in 1998.

"I personally handed over to him (the collection) every 15 days in the amount of $100,000 (P5 million)," said Singson on the fifth day of Estrada's impeachment trial at the senate. Singson reaffirmed that he had personally delivered or paid in cheque $200,000 (P10 million) a month to President Joseph Estrada as protection money from operators of illegal numbers game (jueteng), for 22 months -from November 1998 to August 31, 2000. The governor claimed that Estrada's "best friend", businessman Charlie Ang, met all the country's "jueteng" operators sometime in 1998.

Estrada ordered them to "pay protection money corresponding to three per cent of the total collection for each province," he said. In January 1999, Singson said he paid Estrada a cheque which was eventually deposited at Makati's SBC. Senator Loren Legarda asked if the acronym referred to Security Bank, but Singson failed to make a confirmation. This prompted Legarda to request the prosecution to provide more details of the transaction, adding this could help identify the trace secret accounts which were used to launder protection money from gamblers.

Singson said Estrada was identified in the ledger (of deliveries) as "A.S." adding it meant "Asiong Salonga," the first lead character, which Estrada portrayed when he was an actor in the mid-60s. Singson based his testimony on a 22-page ledger which has a list of entries, expenses, balance, including an accumulated $2.46 million (P123 million) for Estrada from the monthly jueteng collection, estimated at $600,000 to $700,000 (P30 to P 35 million) a month. Singson took over the job of collecting protection money from jueteng lords from the president's friend Atong Ang, as instructed by Estrada in a meeting they held at the latter's house in suburban Greenhills in August 1998.

"The president said Bong Pineda, who operates jueteng in Pampanga, central Luzon, should not be the one to bring in the collection because he is identified. That was when we started delivering jueteng collections to Malacanang, the presidential palace ," said Singson.