PAL Airbuses on standby for trip to U.S., source says

Asian Economic News, Jan 22, 2001

MANILA, Jan. 19 Kyodo

Two Philippine Airlines (PAL) Airbus A340 jets are on standby at a Manila airport for a flight to San Francisco at the request of the presidential palace, a PAL source said Friday.

A presidential palace spokesman denied the report, however.

There was no indication of who made the request or who might take the flights, but speculation is mounting rapidly President Joseph Estrada, under massive pressure to resign from hundreds of thousands of Filipinos protesting his rule across the country, may be preparing to flee.

An immigration official at the airport said authorities have received a request from the presidential palace to prepare for departure clearances, but no individual names were mentioned.

Estrada, abandoned by his entire military and police forces as well as the majority of his cabinet secretaries, refused earlier Friday to immediately resign, but he has asked Congress to call for a snap presidential election in May.

Estrada said he will not run for reelection and would ''immediately'' hand power to the next elected president.

''A special presidential balloting will, moreover, give my successor the fresh start and the mandate to heal our wounded nation and rebuild our floundering economy,'' Estrada said.

He said he would have wished his impeachment trial to continue to allow the constitutional process to take its due course, but that he knew his ''mandate to lead our people will remain in question from hereon regardless of the outcome of the trial.''

But the hundreds of thousands of Filipino protesters rallying at the historic metropolitan Manila shrine marking the 1986 ''People Power'' revolt that drove Ferdinand Marcos into exile immediately broke into chants of ''No to a snap election!''

Estrada's military and police chiefs and most of his cabinet resigned Friday and urged him to immediately step down.

The protests have snowballed since Estrada's impeachment trial virtually collapsed Tuesday night after 11 of 21 senators voted to leave sealed evidence prosecutors said would show Estrada guilty of amassing unexplained wealth.

He was impeached by the House of Representatives on Nov. 13 and had been on trial in the Senate since Dec. 7.

It is not clear, however, how Estrada could stay in power until the election he wants held at the same time as senatorial and local elections slated for May 14.

Only a tiny core group of supporters remain with him, with majority of cabinet secretaries announcing their resignations Friday following the defection of military chief of staff Gen. Angelo Reyes, Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado, and all the key officials of the military hierarchy.

Senior police officials followed suit.

And late Friday, National Police chief Panfilo Lacson, an officer considered the most loyal to Estrada, also announced he and his men were withdrawing support from Estrada.

A close friend of the beleaguered president has already flown to Hong Kong with his entire family.

Businessman Jaime Dichaves, who earlier claimed to own a bank account under a fictitious name ''Jose Velarde'' that impeachment prosecutors said was actually Estrada's repository for kickbacks and bribes, fled with his wife, four sons and a maid.

The immigration office said it could not prevent Dichaves from leaving the Philippines because there was no court order to stop him.

Dichaves is a member of Estrada's so-called ''midnight cabinet'' of drinking and gambling buddies.

Deals for lucrative contracts and appointments were allegedly made among the group during late-night drinking sprees.