Word: estradas
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Shortly after he and his son were peacefully and very publicly arrested on charges of "economic plunder" and carted off to a jail in a Manila military compound, Joseph Estrada, the disgraced ex-President of the Philippines, proclaimed his innocence on television and radio interviews and dismissed his persecution as a conspiracy being waged against him by the ?lite classes. It was potentially rousing material, but the former movie star's delivery failed him. He was still wearing his trademark white wristband adorned with the presidential seal, but his swagger was gone. He looked defeated and confused...
...better question might be: Why now? Estrada is accused of pocketing $82 million of state money in his 31 months in power, but that was merely a good week's work for the monumentally crooked Ferdinand Marcos, who was never even tried. Estrada's booze, women and illegitimate children somehow came off as charming, even in a resolutely Catholic nation. His vices certainly made him a man of the people, not the Establishment. Estrada himself characterized the People Power II revolution that overthrew him in January as the "text-messaging generation" against the "vacationless class...
...understand that she had 70,000 of the poorest of the poor in the Philippines clamoring at the gates of the palace, and that?s a scary situation. Even those sections of the military opposed to Arroyo didn't properly gauge the extent of support for arrested former president Estrada. They didn't anticipate the size of the demonstrations and respond quickly enough. During the "People Power II" demonstrations that brought down Estrada, the head of the armed forces, General Reyes, saw the writing on the wall and decided to side with Gloria. But this time, time the elements...
...What we're seeing here for the first time is that the poorest, most marginalized and disenfranchised people are out on the streets, and not because people are paying them. They're there because they thought Estrada was their messiah, and that he had been wronged by the power elite that traditionally rules the Philippines...
...possible that the opposition could still try to stir things up in the provincial cities, especially in Mindanao. Because it's such a class-based thing, with the middle and upper classes backing Arroyo while the underclass supports Estrada, there is a real fear that if the poor come out on the streets again - and it really won't take much to get them there, particularly since they clearly sensed their power this week - that there could be widespread looting and chaos...