Estrada Arrested in Corruption Case
Death Sentence Possible for Ousted Philippine President
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, April 26, 2001; Page A20
MANILA, April 25 —
Scores of heavily armed police officers broke through a stone-throwing crowd and arrested former Philippine president Joseph Estrada today on corruption charges, locking him in a Spartan jail cell to await trial before an anti-graft court that could sentence him to death.
Estrada, who was forced from office in January, was taken in a dark van from his mansion here to a large police camp, where local television stations filmed the haggard and grim-faced former action movie star being fingerprinted, photographed and examined by a physician.
He was arrested on eight charges, including economic plunder, which does not allow bail and carries a possible death sentence. Prosecutors contend that he ran a criminal syndicate from the country’s highest office, keeping multimillion-dollar bank accounts under false names, profiting from insider-trading of stocks and receiving large payoffs from business deals. They allege that he pocketed $82 million in bribes and kickbacks during his 31 months in office.
Estrada is the first Philippine president — and one of only a handful of world leaders — to be arrested on corruption charges. Former dictator Ferdinand Marcos had been accused of siphoning billions from the national treasury, but he avoided imprisonment by fleeing to the United States after leaving office in 1986.
Officials had feared that an attempt to arrest Estrada would lead to a violent confrontation with hundreds of his supporters, who had surrounded a mansion in which he had been virtually holed up for the past three months. After the anti-graft court issued the arrest warrant this morning, commando units along with legions of riot police moved in on the protesters.
Eventually, the officers cleared the way for the van to enter Estrada’s vast compound. Officials said he surrendered peacefully and entered the van with his wife, Luisa, and his son, Jinggoy, the mayor of small town in metropolitan Manila who also was arrested on corruption charges.
“The arrest proves that the wheel of justice is grinding,” said Interior Secretary Jose Lina. “Even if one occupied the highest post in the land, he is not above the law.”
In a taped message broadcast on local radio stations, Estrada denied any wrongdoing and said he would “face and answer all the charges against me.”
Estrada’s downfall began in October when a provincial governor accused the then-president of accepting nearly $12 million in bribes from cigarette taxes and an illegal gambling racket. Within weeks, opposition groups filed impeachment charges, which resulted in a U.S.-style Senate trial that began in December and was televised.
The trial was lurid, with allegations of secret bank accounts and witnesses who testified that the president signed documents with a false name. But in January, when a narrow majority of senators refused to examine bank records that prosecutors said would detail some of Estrada’s vast wealth, the entire prosecution team quit, forcing an indefinite adjournment of the trial and causing throngs of outraged Filipinos to take to the streets.
The crowds swelled to hundreds of thousands in a reprise of the “People Power” demonstrations that toppled Marcos. Within days, most of Estrada’s cabinet and his military commanders defected to the opposition, leading Estrada to depart the presidential palace on Jan. 20. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the vice president and leader of the effort to oust Estrada, assumed the presidency.
The country’s ombudsman opened an investigation into Estrada’s allegedly ill-gotten wealth a day after he left office. His attorneys tried to stop the inquiry, arguing that Estrada never officially resigned and still has presidential immunity, but the Supreme Court rejected that contention.
Estrada was first arrested last week on charges of perjury and graft but was released after posting bail. Prosecutors have said they want to withdraw five of their eight charges to focus on the central charge of plunder, which is defined as systematic theft from the state of at least $1 million.
“What happened today is a kind of closure to what began in January,” said Randolf David, a sociologist at the University of the Philippines. “How can a country overthrow its president and just send him home?”
Legal specialists said prosecutors could have a relatively straightforward case against Estrada, who, they say, left a conspicuous paper trail documenting millions of dollars he received as president.
Estrada, 64, rode to the presidency largely through the backing of the country’s impoverished masses, many of whom still support him. After he was arrested, several supporters outside his mansion broke into tears.
Arroyo, an economist who has pledged to clean up the corrupt government, insisted today that she is not waging a political vendetta against Estrada.
“Justice is the key issue here,” she said. “Let the trial begin. The court is the proper venue, since the trial of Joseph Estrada is neither a political matter nor a class war.”
Elected president in 1998 with the largest vote total in Philippine history, Estrada was fond of drinking expensive wines, gambling until dawn and dividing his time among four mistresses. The behavior endeared him to Filipinos, but critics accused him of spending too much time partying and too little time paying attention to matters of state.
Special correspondent Carlos Conde contributed to this report.
