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Philippine President Ready to Abide by Impeachment Trial Result
Philippine President Joseph Estrada reiterated Sunday, December 10, that he is ready to abide by the results of his impeachment trial which he said has been quite an ordeal for him and his family.
He is willing to accept his impeachment trial as his personal sacrifice so the Filipino people can understand the current issues better, he said at a shrine in Bacolod, capital of the central province of Negros Occidental, where he joined parishioners in praying for national enlightenment, reconciliation and peace.
"I accept the trial as a sacrifice to let our people understand what is happening. I am ready to accept the outcome of the trial. I believe that the truth will come out in the end," the Philippine News Agency quoted him as saying.
During the Mass, the president also asked God for moral strength to endure the "agonizing days" of the impeachment trial, which began last Thursday.
"Lord, I also pray that you may grant me spiritual guidance and moral fortitude to muster the courage and strength to endure the agonizing days that the impeachment trial brings to me and my family," he said.
The president, impeached for charges of bribery, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust, and culpable violation of the Constitution, would be removed from office if convicted on any of the four charges by a two-thirds vote in the 22-member Senate.
Estrada's impeachment trial, the first for a Philippine leader, followed allegations by a provincial governor that the president received more than 11 million U.S. dollars in illegal gambling payoffs and tobacco tax kickbacks in nearly two years in the past.
Estrada, who has repeatedly denied the charges and rejected calls for his resignation from the opposition, has expressed confidence that he would be acquitted.
"We pray for moral strength and wisdom to guide our senator- judges, panel lawyers and all those involved in the ongoing impeachment process so that they may come to a fair solution of the case based on the merits of truth," he said.
The president lamented that the politicking stemming from this issue has adversely affected the poor instead of uplifting their lives.
"Let us stop this muckraking and infighting. Let use help each other for the good of the nation and the people, especially the poor," he said.
At the shrine, Estrada also announced that he will order on Monday the commutation of all death convicts in the country, in observance of the Jubilee Year of the Catholic Church.
Earlier Sunday, the president witnessed the signing of a peace pact between the government and the Revolutionary Proletarian Army- Alex Boncayao Brigade, a breakaway group of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing New People's Army, in a town near Bacolod.
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