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Estrada Opponents, Supporters Stage Rival Rallies As Trial Opens
by Mynardo Macaraig
MANILA (AFP) - Thousands of supporters and opponents of Philippine President Joseph Estrada took to the streets Thursday to mark the opening of a corruption trial that could see him dismissed from office.
Some 5,000 security personnel were deployed to keep the demonstrators away from the Senate building where the trial was held and prevent the two sides from getting at each other.
Despite the heated passions on both sides, city police chief Senior Superintendent Edgardo Aglipay said that the protests were "generally peaceful," adding that both camps cooperated by staying within designated areas.
The anti-Estrada rallyists, including Vice-President Gloria Arroyo, former president Corazon Aquino and church leader Cardinal Jaime Sin, took turns lambasting Estrada and calling for his resignation before a crowd of nearly 50,000, including activists, businessmen, students, nuns and civic groups.
"You have lost your moral ascendancy to govern us," Sin told the crowd, addressing Estrada.
After a mass, the anti-Estrada forces began a march with Arroyo and Aquino jointly bearing a "torch of truth" carried in relays, Olympic-style, to the rally.
Aquino and Arroyo walked about a hundred meters (yards) before passing the torch to members of the business community. It was subsequently passed through the hands of other sectoral representatives as the march went around the Senate.
Estrada opponents were assigned to a site near a carnival where they set up a huge banner saying, "Erap resign", referring to Estrada's popular nickname.
About 30,000 Estrada supporters gathered at an empty lot near the Senate, normally used for evangelical prayer rallies, carrying banners saying, "Erap remain."
They also waved banners saying "Erap for the poor" and "beloved senators, follow the masses" referring to Estrada's frequent boast that only the elite were against him and the country's poor continued to back him.
The police initially did not want to let the anti-Estrada marchers go near the Senate but two opposition senators, Teofisto Guingona and Franklin Drilo,n came out of the building and convinced the police to let a smaller group, including Aquino and Arroyo, to march through the security barricades.
This angered the pro-Estrada group nearby who exchanged taunts with the anti-Estrada marchers, raising tensions slightly.
Estrada is accused of pocketing millions of dollars in bribes from illegal gambling rackets, embezzling tobacco taxes, shielding business cronies targeted by government regulators, and appointing relatives and friends to government posts.
The lower House of Representatives impeached him in November but under the Philippines' U.S.-style political system, a two-thirds vote of the 22-member upper house, the Senate, is necessary to convict him.
Security in and around the Senate building was tight with all people entering the building being searched even if they held proper identification cards.
Senate sergeant-at-arms Leonardo Lopez said they would screen all people entering, adding that bomb-sniffing dogs and bomb disposal teams were at the ready.
Loudspeakers were set up outside the Senate building so the rallyists could listen to the proceedings inside.
In a softening of the government's ban against government workers joining rallies, Estrada's chief aide, Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora on Thursday said that employees could take part in the rallies but would have to take leave or wait until after office hours.
"If you want to express your views then that's no problem. But you have to take a leave of absence. Your countrymen may need you, and you must always be on hand to provide public service," he said.
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