Word: estrada
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...rousing speeches, People Power - just like the glorious revolution that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos so dramatically, and virtually bloodlessly, nearly 15 years ago. The emotion of the moment carried the day, and one felt cynical questioning the motives of the people or the alleged corruption of departed President Joseph Estrada. But what actually happened behind the scenes to bring about People Power II? And could those very powers - and people - that have brought about the downfall of yet another Philippine President be the same forces that will make it difficult for anyone, including freshly sworn in President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo...
...Estrada, who never really got the hang of governing the Philippines, effectively or ineffectively, the end came suddenly as the week's initial good news dizzyingly turned to bad. When Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Angelo Reyes and Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado telephoned him Friday afternoon on a secure line from a secret safehouse, Estrada was just 48 hours removed from celebrating what had seemed like a crucial victory in his impeachment trial. By a vote of 11 Senators to 10, he had managed to suppress the opening of an envelope containing the potentially damaging evidence that Estrada controlled...
...make sure Estrada fully understood the implications of this phone call, Reyes dispatched his deputy, General Jose Calimlim, on a mission to personally brief the President on the untenability of his situation. Calimlim, a trusted former aide-de-camp to Estrada, was the appropriate designate to offer the President the pakikisama (show of loyalty) owed to a person whom Reyes would later say he considered a "friend, not an enemy...
...Estrada had badly miscalculated in his bid to beat the impeachment trial. By winning the battle to suppress the evidence on a technicality - his defenders argued the material in the envelope was not relevant to the original impeachment charges - Estrada would lose all. It was that small victory that triggered the tumult that would topple the President. When it became clear that a majority of the 21 Senators was prepared to defend Estrada, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel cast his vote against Estrada, and then resigned his post. The entire prosecution team followed suit, throwing the fate of the impeachment trial...
That's where Calimlim went when he left the drunken, distraught Estrada on Friday afternoon, joining Reyes, civilian Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado and a roll call of generals and admirals who had similarly shifted their support from Estrada to Arroyo, who had been his Vice President. The Filipino brass who hold so much power in this troubled democracy were welcomed into the opposition stronghold like conquering heroes by some 700,000 demonstrators. Reyes pledged his support to Arroyo in front of the crowd. Clearly grateful for the military allegiance that now seemed to ensure her ascension to the presidency, Arroyo...