In public, the President strongly urged his partymates in the ruling Lapian ng Masang Pilipino (LAMP) coalition to help speed up the impeachment process so he can face his accusers in the Senate trial of the case.
At the same time, the President and his top political advisers have reportedly been plotting strategies that would swing the Senate vote in his favor.
Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. bared an alleged plan by the administration to bribe se-nators with P100 million each to make them vote against the President’s conviction.
The President’s allies in the Senate are also bent on unseating Franklin Drilon as Senate president this Monday. Malacañang reportedly wants to replace Drilon, who bolted LAMP and joined calls for the President’s re-signation, with Senate President Pro Tempore Blas Ople.
This "coup" will be ini- tiated by pro-administration Sen. John Osmeña, who said he wanted all positions in the Senate declared vacant when they resume session on Monday, ostensibly to determine the actual number of members of both the majority and minority blocs.
At the House of Representatives, LAMP congressmen are still bent on unseating another coalition defector, Speaker Manuel Villar Jr.
Opposition and ruling party sources told reporters yesterday that congressmen who remain loyal to Mr. Estrada will move for the reorganization of the House as the first order of the day on Monday.
The leadership issue will be raised as a "prejudicial question," meaning it should take precedence over all other matters.
Sources said the Estrada allies would present a motion to declare all House positions, from the speakership down to committee membership, vacant.
Meanwhile, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee conducting hearings on the jueteng scandal involving the President, filed a resolution seeking the adoption of rules of procedures and practice governing the impeachment process patterned after those of the United States Senate.
"If the Senate is going to convict him, then I think it’s duty-bund of his advisers to tell him not to go through the process anymore and go gracefully," Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Felipe Medalla said in a radio interview. "But the way it looks now, it doesn’t seem that that’s going to be the end result."
The united opposition admitted that it has no recourse in case the impeachment bid fails.
Judging from the way lawmakers tangle even on a minor issue, the leadership question could entail interminable debates and take a few days to resolve, they said.
Rep. Danilo Suarez (LAMP, Quezon), one of several friends of the President who are plotting to oust Villar, admitted that some members of his group are indeed planning to raise the leadership issue.
"We will do that if we have the numbers to effect a leadership change. As of now, we don’t have the numbers," he told reporters.
"Maraming kangaroo (There are so many kangaroos)," he said, referring to those abandoning the Estrada ship and jumping to the opposition to support the impeachment petition against the President.
While Suarez admitted that they will try to shake the House leadership if they have the numbers, opposition congressmen expect some Estrada allies to move for declaring all House positions vacant regardless of which way the numerical factor goes.
"Some will try that, no doubt about it, just to delay the process. Voting alone on such a motion will cause some delay," said Assistant Minority Leader Hernani Braganza (Lakas, Pangasinan).
He said the most effective way for the minority and Villar’s group of independents to fight dilatory tactics and speed up the impeachment process would be to ensure that they have the majority on their side.
He said as of yesterday afternoon, the number of endorsers of the impeachment complaint has grown to 106, and many more have pledged their signatures.
He admitted that the ruling party is wooing back with a lot of promises, including fund releases, those who plan to join the pro-impeachment camp.
Whether they succeed in ousting Villar or not, the President’s allies could spring another surprise: moving for returning the impeachment complaint to the justice committee.
The scenario would be more likely if the Palace allies succeed in installing a new House leader.
Sources said if administration congressmen are able to remand the complaint to the justice committee, the panel will sit on it.
That is where it will eventually be killed, they said.
Another assistant minority leader, Rep. Oscar Moreno (Lakas, Misamis Oriental), appealed to his colleagues who remain loyal to the President not to delay the inevitable – that the House will eventually send the impeachment petition to the Senate and the Chief Executive will face trial.
He said the plot being hatched by Mr. Estrada’s allies is not unexpected even while the President has been saying that he was eager to face a Senate trial so he could answer the charges against him.
"Mr. Estrada’s propensity for saying one thing and doing another should be obvious by now. Walang kamag-anak, walang kaibigan, ‘yun pala, puro kamag-anak at puro kaibigan ang pinaboran (No relatives or friends, when it is all friends and relatives), he said.
He stressed that the minority and Villar’s group have more than the minimum 73 votes to eventually send the impeachment complaint to the Senate.
The opposition, led by Minority Leader Feliciano Belmonte Jr. (Lakas, Quezon City), and the Speaker’s bloc of independents make up the core of the emerging majority in the House.
They have gained control of the 51-member justice committee, temporarily chaired by Rep. Oscar Rodriguez of Pampanga, and paved the way for the panel last Monday to make the historic vote endorsing the complaint to the House proper.
"It is true that I want this process of impeachment speeded up," Mr. Estrada said, adding that his silence as the case dragged on was being misconstrued as an admission of guilt.
"The longer the delay that I have kept silent, (the more) they convict me of being guilty already," the President stressed.
Malacañang earlier issued a press statement quoting Mr. Estrada calling on the legislators, specifically members of LAMP, to immediately set in motion the impeachment proceedings.
As if heeding his call, Senate President Franklin Drilon, along with Senators Rodolfo Biazon and Anna Dominique Coseteng declared their defection from LAMP to join the united opposition.
At the House, Speaker Manuel Villar Jr. led 46 pro-administration congressmen in signing the impeachment complaint. The move also signified their departure from the ruling party.
Mr. Estrada said the desertions have ceased, adding that some of the deserters have even sent feelers that they wanted to rejoin LAMP, but did not name names.
He branded the defections as "disinformation" being waged by the opposition.
Mr. Estrada hailed the statement of support issued by the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) headed by Agriculture Secretary Edgardo Angara. "I am happy about it because slowly, many of my supporters are coming back."
Meanwhile, Press Secretary Ricardo Puno Jr. denied allegations that Malacañang was plotting the ouster of Drilon as Senate President and Villar as Speaker of the House.
"Malacañang will do no such thing because we are not the legislature. Malacañang will not interfere in that process (congressional leadership revamp)," Puno said.
Also yesterday, the President said he accepted suggestions by his predecessor and arch critic, former President Fidel Ramos.
However, Mr. Estrada insisted that his management style has been on the right track, particularly in restoring normalcy from the current political and economic turmoil besetting the country.
Mr. Estrada cited Monday’s rebound of the peso against the dollar, and the upswing of the stock market even as impeachment proceedings against him formally opened at the House.
He said he accepted Mr. Ramos’ advice on how to improve the economy and for him to mend his ways.
Pimentel said with the impending impeachment trial, "it is only proper that the Senate should adopt certain rules or procedures and practice to govern the impeachment proceedings against the President and other impeachable constitutional officials."
Among the salient points of the proposed rules is a provision mandating that the impeachment trial must be conducted daily except Sunday "until final judgment shall be rendered."
Other provisions include:
• The (Supreme Court) Chief Justice shall preside over the impeachment proceedings.
• The legislative and executive business of the Senate shall be suspended while it conducts the trial of the impeachment case.
• The person (being) impeached shall be called to appear and answer the articles of impeachment against him although his designated representative may appear on his behalf.
• At all times of the impeachment trial, the doors of the Senate shall be kept open unless the Senate shall direct the doors to be closed while deliberating on its decisions.
• The Senate sitting in an impeachment trial may not adjourn for more than one 24-hour day.
• On the final question of whether the impeachment is sustained, the yeas and nays shall be taken on each article of impeachment separately. If the impeachment shall not, upon any article of the impeachment presented, be sustained by the votes of two-thirds of the members present, a judgment of acquittal shall be entered.
They are Senators Francisco Tatad, Teresa Aquino-Oreta, Gregorio Honasan, Juan Ponce Enrile, Blas Ople, Vicente Sotto III, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Aquilino Pimentel, and himself, Osmeña said.
Osmeña has resigned his chairmanship of the Senate committee on finance and energy.
Sources said among the possible nominees as the next Senate president replacing Franklin Drilon are Ople, currently Senate President Pro Tempore, Minority Leader Teofisto Guingona Jr. and Pimentel.
Drilon has bolted LAMP along with Senators Anna Dominique Coseteng, Ramon Magsaysay Jr., Rodolfo Biazon, Robert Jaworski and Ramon Revilla as an offshoot of accusations that Mr. Estrada pocketed more than P400 million in jueteng payoffs.
Magsaysay expressed belief that Drilon would be able to retain the Senate presidency.
Meanwhile, leaders of the united opposition admitted that they have no alternative if the impeachment bid against Mr. Estrada failed.
"That is not a good question right now. Let us not try to be pessimistic," Parañaque City Rep. Roilo Golez said.
Golez was among the huge group of congressmen who recently bolted LAMP and hopped into the opposition bandwagon.
Former defense secretary Renato de Villa said they planned to increase the pressure on the President to step down with more mass actions.
For his part, Honasan warned against abusing people power to advance personal political ambitions.
Honasan, a key player in the 1986 EDSA revolt, said political leaders should resolve the current political crisis through dialogues.
"There is no need to call for people power because the impeachment process in now in place," Honasan said. –With Marichu Villanueva, Perseus Echeminada, Jose Aravilla, Mike Frialde