Impeached President Joseph Estrada is unlikely to take the stand at his own corruption trial on Thursday because his lawyers are convinced that the evidence against him is weak, the Philippines presidential palace said Saturday.
Estrada entered a plea of "not guilty" at the Senate tribunal last Friday. He will be dismissed from office if convicted on any of the charges of corruption, bribery, betraying public trust and committing constitutional violations.
The defense team is weighing the need to have the president personally testify, although it now "sees no need for this since the evidence presented by the prosecution panel is weak," a palace statement said.
The 63 year-old Filipino leader earlier expressed his eagerness at taking the stand to personally rebut allegations that he took millions of dollars in bribes from gambling bosses, embezzled tobacco excise taxes and built lavish homes for his mistresses.
Prosecutors have called one of his sons, local official cum movie star Jose Ejercito who is also known as Jinggoy Estrada, as an adverse witness. They notified the Senate that they would put the son on the stand on December 7.
Estrada made a fresh appeal to the opposition on Saturday to allow the constitutional process to take its course, "instead of making moves that would only increase our people's anxiety and hardship."
The opposition has organized almost daily street demonstrations to demand his immediate resignation. His constitutional successor, Vice President Gloria Arroyo, former president Corazon Aquino and Roman Catholic bishops have taken part in these protests.
Estrada has charged that these were scaring away foreign investors and caused the steep plunge of the peso against the dollar.
The opposition rejects his conclusion and insist that Estrada himself is the problem.
The influential Catholic archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Jaime Sin, announced Saturday that he would carry a torch he described as the "flame of truth" when he joins Aquino and Arroyo at a planned march on the Senate during the start of the trial on Thursday.
The church will lead a "Senate vigil" and keep the torch lit outside the building. He said in a statement that he would only extinguish the flame on the day Estrada steps down.
A church spokesmen said the institution would organize daily candle-lit marches around the Senate building for the duration of the trial.
Meanwhile, presidential spokesman Miguel Toledo said Estrada would run the government as normal during his trial to dispel criticism that the political crisis has plunged his 29 month-old administration into limbo.
The president "will not be distracted by the ongoing process," Toledo said over ABS-CBN television.
"He has told members of his cabinet "not to allow themselves to be distracted by the ongoing political circus or ongoing political crisis but to focus their attention on the basic problems that the country is facing." – MANILA (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
