Former Philippine President Joseph Estrada forced a businessman to sell his stake in the country’s largest telephone firm to a unit of a Hong Kong-based conglomerate by threatening to jail his son, a senator and former ally said on Monday.
Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, who served as national chief of police under Estrada, also accused the former president of taking money from syndicates running illegal gambling, a charge under which he has been convicted, sentenced to life in jail and then pardoned.
“There were other sinister behaviour patterns that must be told to the Filipino people,” Lacson said in a privilege speech at the Senate hall, adding Estrada used his power as president to amass wealth by pretending to be pro-poor.
In 1998, banking and insurance tycoon Alfonso Yuchengco sold his indirectly held minority stake in Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co to a unit of Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co Ltd.
The purchase was among deals that helped First Pacific gain a majority stake in Philippine Telecommunications Investment Corp, which controlled a 21.5 percent stake in PLDT at that time.
“It was only after the passage of many years that I was to learn that Mr. Estrada, barely two months in office then, used the Philippine National Police to harass Mr. Yuchengco’s son, Tito, with threat of arrest on some trumped-up drug charges to force his father, Mr. Yuchengco to sell,” Lacson said.
“This harassment of the young man was accomplished through deliberate and obvious physical surveillance.”
Ray Espinosa, legal counsel of PLDT chairman and First Pacific chief executive Manuel Pangilinan, told a television interview that there was nothing illegal in the sale of Yuchengco’s shares.
“It was commercially negotiated,” he said.
Estrada was removed from office in 2001 and convicted of plunder in 2007. He was then pardoned by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, his former vice president.
Last week, Estrada told Reuters he intended to stand for president in the 2010 election.
“I would be remiss in my sworn duty as an elected member of the Senate, as a national elected official of the land, if I did not unburden myself of my insights on the character of Mr. Estrada,” Lacson said.
“God save the Philippines from Joseph Ejercito Estrada.”
Estrada’s son, Jinggoy, who is also a senator, stood up to defend Estrada.
“It’s all lies,” the younger Estrada said, adding he would deliver his own privilege speech on Tuesday to answer Lacson’s accusations.
