Sen. Jinggoy Estrada. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
The ghost of President Joseph Estrada’s impeachment was raised on Monday when Senate President Pro Tempore Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada recalled that then House Speaker Manuel Villar and his supporters had “railroaded” the verified complaint against his father.
“Once the complaint gets the necessary number of signatures, there is nothing you can do. In our time, even if we cried or rolled on the floor in agony, the complaint had no choice but be transmitted to the Senate,” Senator Estrada said at the start of the defense presentation in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.
In November 2000, opposition congressmen managed to gather the signatures of one-third of the House members to a verified complaint that accused then President Estrada of culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust for allegedly receiving payoffs from operators of jueteng, an illegal numbers game.
Villar drew criticism for suddenly inserting the text of the verified complaint in the opening prayer he read at the start of the session. The chamber then considered the complaint passed despite protests from Estrada’s allies.
“Of course that is already history. What is important now is that the defense would present witnesses to prove that the Chief Justice really provided the truth in his (statement of assets, liabilities and net worth),” said Senator Estrada, who recalled the event after Corona’s lead counsel, Serafin Cuevas, insisted that his client was deprived of due process.
Villar rose and pointed out that unlike the impeachment complaint against Corona that was signed by 188 congressmen and transmitted to the Senate in two days, “our complaint took about a month and was signed under more difficult circumstances.”
Villar said the House justice committee also had two hearings before the impeachment complaint against Estrada was circulated. He stressed that during that time, the congressmen were trying to impeach a sitting president.
“Anyone who signed understood that he could lose all his perks. Things are different now when a congressman signs an impeachment complaint to please the President. There is a big difference, it is 100 times different,” he said.
The younger Estrada again took the floor, this time to say he did not want to “belabor the point.”
“I hate to use the word railroaded but I think, I hope (Villar) respects my opinion. That impeachment case against (my father) was really railroaded. It is already history,” he said.
Villar also returned to the podium if only to say he “would no longer say anything on this case.”
The two then shook hands.