Angara: Business will accept verdict

Malacañang asserted yesterday that the business, military and police sectors will accept whatever verdict is handed down by the senator-judges in the impeachment trial of President Estrada.

Executive Secretary Edgardo Angara said the business community would focus on reviving productivity once the trial is over.

"The business community will be the first to accept the verdict, whatever it is," Angara said.

The Agence France Presse (AFP) reported, however, that a broad coalition of anti-Estrada groups "which includes an odd mixture of leftists, the Catholic Church and business executives," called yesterday on the public to reject any acquittal in the light of overwhelming evidence pointing to Mr. Estrada’s wrongdoings.

Angara said the military and police organizations, being professionals and loyal to the Constitution, will also respect the outcome of the impeachment process.

More so with members of the House of Representatives, since the impeachment initiative emanated from them, he said.

It would need a two-thirds vote of the 22-member Senate to convict the President and force him to step down.

Political analysts, however, warned that the country — which has been severely divided on the issue — would experience some upheavals after the trial.

Either the pro-Estrada camp or anti-Estrada fanatics might react strongly, depending on the senators’ decision.

Press Undersecretary Mike Toledo said he does not foresee any major disturbance.

"I would not call it a post-acquittal scenario... what the government is doing is to insulate the economic situation from the current political crisis," Toledo told reporters.

He said the government is operating as it should despite calls for protest moves by anti-Estrada quarters.

"So regardless of what happens, we won’t be in a state of paralysis," he said.

The militant Kongreso ng Mamamayang Pilipino II (KOMPIL) warned that an acquittal would "invite a repeat of EDSA," referring to the 1986 people power revolt that toppled the Marcos dictatorship.

"We overthrew a ruthless dictator; we must oust a criminal president," KOMPIL said, adding that a nationwide anti-Estrada protest would be made to bear down on the senators and prevent a miscarriage of justice.

But political observers feared that the tribunal would be unable to muster the two-thirds vote to convict the President.

Acquittal would trigger public outrage — De Villa

Former Defense Secretary Renato de Villa, now a key member of the so-called united opposition, predicted that public outrage marked by violence would occur if the President is acquitted despite the mounting evidence against him.

For his part, former National Security Adviser Jose Almonte appealed to the senator-judges to consider the people’s sentiments in deciding the impeachment case.

Addressing a forum organized by KOMPIL at the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City, De Villa said a verdict of acquittal would be "totally unacceptable" to the people.

"This is a scenario we don’t want to happen, but this is possible," De Villa said.

He pointed out that the evidence and testimonies against Mr. Estrada have created confidence and optimism among the public that the President would be found guilty.

However, some pro-administration senators have manifested their clear bias in favor of the President, giving rise to suspicions that an acquittal is in the offing.

"We still have to push for Estrada’s conviction. We’re supposed to be confident of the conclusion that he is guilty, but there’s the Senate which is likely to have a political vote despite the moral vote of the majority outside," he stressed.

De Villa, also a former Armed Forces chief, said a "not guilty" verdict would trigger massive public outrage akin to the EDSA revolution.

Adverting to Sen. Gregorio Honasan’s observation that a repeat of the EDSA uprising is unlikely without military support, De Villa said it is bound to happen "because of an unjust verdict."

He said the government cannot simply ignore the armed groups such as the New People’s Army of the communist insurgency movement.

"To be certain, there is a resurgence in armed activities of the communist rebels in the countryside and their current thrust is opposed to the peace process and supports his ouster," De Villa said.

He pointed out that the spate of bombings in Metro Manila on Dec. 30 could be a "state of terrorism in disguise," adding it was unlikely that the Mindanao-based Moro Islamic Liberation Front was behind the bomb attacks.

"Since the impeachment is a political act, the Senate must take into account this declared opinion of civil society," Almonte said.

Various groups, including the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, leaders of other mainstream church-based organizations, businessmen, students and members of academe, other professional groups and retired general have joined the mounting calls for Mr. Estrada’s resignation.

"Civil society has judged President Estrada to be morally unfit to rule, and have withdrawn their mandate," Almonte told members of the executive committee of the right-wing Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang Makabansa (RAM) which sowed the seeds of the EDSA revolt.

Almonte said the ongoing impeachment trial "is not about the search for incontestable proof" of the President’s wrongdoings.

"Neither is it simply throwing Estrada out of office and replacing him with Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo," Almonte said.

"It is about stopping, once and for all, the collusion among politicians, bureaucrats and business oligarchs that has made the making of public order and its enforcement for sale to the highest bidder," Almonte noted.

He stressed that a conviction will compel future presidents to live up to their oath of office and to think twice before they betray the public trust. — With reports from Pia Lee-Brago, Christina Mendez