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Noynoy, Villar helped Arroyo stay in power, says Erap son


For supposedly contributing to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s rise to power, presidential aspirants Manuel Villar Jr. and Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III should apologize to the public and to former President Joseph “Erap" Estrada. This was according to Estrada’s camp led by his son, San Juan City Mayor Jose Victor “JV" Ejercito, the vice president of the opposition party Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) in Luzon. "Why don’t they (Aquino, Villar) first admit they were wrong in contributing to President Estrada’s ouster and installing [President] Gloria to power? Why don’t they admit this was the reason why the Filipinos have been suffering for nine years under the Arroyo regime," Ejercito read a prepared statement at a press conference on Wednesday. He was referring to the second EDSA People Power Revolution in 2001 that led to Estrada’s downfall and the rise of then Vice President Arroyo to the presidency. Estrada was then being accused of corruption. In late 2000, Villar, then House Speaker and Las Piñas representative, became instrumental in Estrada’s fall from power when he transmitted to the Senate the impeachment complaint against Estrada. The massive street uprising in January 2001 ensued after Estrada’s allies in the Senate impeachment court voted not to open an envelope that supposedly contained incriminating information against the deposed leader. In the May 2001 elections, Villar ran and won as senator under the administration ticket. This year, he is running for president and is projecting himself as an opposition candidate amid speculations that he is President Arroyo’s secret candidate. Navotas City Mayor Toby Tiangco, who joined Ejercito at the press conference in Mandaluyong City, said Aquino had been a “protector" of President Arroyo during the height of the “Hello Garci" scandal in 2005. The scandal refers to the alleged wiretapped conversations where vote-rigging in the 2004 elections was discussed by a woman presumed to be President Arroyo and a man presumed to be former Commission on Election (Comelec) Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. Tiangco said that when Congress investigated the alleged election fraud, Aquino, then Tarlac representative, was among those who voted against playing the controversial tapes. Back then, the Aquino family was still allied with the administration. Curiously, the “Hello Garci" scandal eventually prompted Aquino’s mother, the late President Corazon “Cory" Aquino, to withdraw her support from the administration and even joined calls for President Arroyo’s resignation. "They helped GMA [President Arroyo’s initials] steal the presidency not once, but twice," Tiangco said, evoking the famous catchphrase of Susan Roces, widow of the late Fernando Poe Jr., President Arroyo’s closest rival in the 2004 elections. - KBK/RSJ, GMANews.TV

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