Senator Jinggoy Estrada yesterday denied the claim of Senator Panfilo Lacson that his father, former President Joseph Estrada, knew that the money going to his pet project to educate Muslim youths and send some of them to Harvard, came from jueteng.

"That is his (Lacson's) own position, he has no proof about it," Senator Estrada said.

The senator said he did not know what had motivated Lacson to make such allegation.

Meanwhile, the senator said he was happy with the outcome of his father's hearing Wednesday where he was able to deny the plunder charges against him, which he called "a pack of lies".

The senator said his father is the last witness of the defense and "if we really have a fair trial I am 101 percent sure President Estrada will be acquitted."

The senator said it is unfortunate that the Supreme Court did not allow the former president to have live coverage at his hearing.

"We wanted the hearing to be aired live because President Estrada did not have the chance to defend himself during the impeachment trial that was aborted because of the walk-out of the prosecutors," he said.

"What the public saw and heard was the side of the prosecution during the impeachment trial, the side of President Estrada was never heard," he said.

"This is the opportunity for the Filipino people to know the truth behind all these fabricated charges filed against President Estrada and myself," he said.

He said they distributed VCDs to the Filipino people to know the truth behind all these charges now the conspirators headed by the elite, Makati Business Club, civil society, Ilocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson and some members of the church conspired to oust the president.

And our best defense is President Estrada himself, he added.

The senator also said his family has never been involved in destabilizing the Arroyo administration. "As far as we are concerned our family need not destabilize this government, the opposition need not destabilize this government because this government is destabilizing itself," he said.

Everyday you read in the newspapers and hear over the radio that graft and corruption is everywhere," he said.

Meanwhile, he said he still has to read the mechanics of the proposed Small Town Lottery before he can say that he is in favor of it.

He said he has always been for the legalization of jueteng.

The senator was in Bacolod City yesterday to speak at the graduation rites of the Carlos Hilado Memorial State College - Alijis campus.

"Our graduates today, in these painful times of warrantless and unlawful arrests, and in these seasons of destabilization and conspiracy, will serve as bridges to our collective and common futures," he said in his commencement speech.

Estrada told the graduates the world they will be entering will be characterized by the need for survival and reform.

Today "poverty and deprivation have become more the rule than the exception," he said.

"Freedom and civil liberties are slowly being displaced and devalued by a culture of corruption, of lying and cheating, of stealing and deception…nourished by the power of repression and suppression," he said.

"This is a state of affairs waiting to be changed," he said.*CPG

back to top