Estrada May Not Agree To Testify
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday December 16, 2000
Manila: Philippine President Joseph Estrada took a break from fighting his impeachment yesterday to hand out Christmas hampers to the poor.
He again protested that he is innocent of corruption despite new testimony that he stood to gain about $A7 million a month by running a new legal gambling game through a front company.
Mr Estrada said he had ``nothing to do" with allegations made by provincial governor and illegal gambling baron Luis Singson.
He said he had not yet decided whether he would give evidence, and be subjected to cross examination, at the Senate impeachment tribunal which has completed seven days of hearings.
Mr Singson claims he was betrayed by Mr Estrada despite passing him millions of dollars in protection money for the long-running illegal numbers game called jueteng.
He has given evidence that Mr Estrada intended to use crony businessman Charlie ``Atong" Ang to establish a front company called Prominent Management Inc to control a legal gambling game, Bingo 2-Ball.
The plan for the new game was dumped only after he went public with allegations against the President in October, Mr Singson alleged. Mr Singson said leading Government figures, including executive secretary Ronaldo Zamora and Interior Secretary Fred Lim, once known as ``Dirty Harry" for his crime-busting efforts, had been aware of the President's involvement in illegal gambling.
Mr Singson said that when it became clear he was going to go public, Mr Lim tried to persuade him to keep quiet by offering to expose Mr Ang.
The President is accused of graft and corruption, from the diversion of tobacco excise funds as well as the gambling payola, and in interfering in investigations into allegations of a massive insider trading scam involving businessman Dante Tan.
© 2000 Sydney Morning Herald
