Estrada’s Son Is Implicated at Philippine Impeachment Trial

Prosecutors at President Joseph Estrada’s impeachment trial presented testimony Friday implicating the Philippine leader’s son in a scheme to collect illegal gambling payoffs.

On the second day of the unprecedented trial that could remove Estrada from office, congressmen acting as prosecutors tried to establish a paper trail showing that the president accepted payoffs from an illegal numbers game played by many poor Filipinos.

Estrada and the nation were thrown into crisis in October when a provincial governor and reputed gambling lord, Luis Singson, claimed that he gave the president more than $10 million from jueteng, an illegal numbers game, and from tobacco taxes.

On Friday, the prosecution called an aide to Singson, Emma Lim, who testified that she collected wads of cash and large checks--all jueteng proceeds--to be delivered to Estrada.

Lim described picking up $20,000 wrapped in old magazines in January from the office of Estrada’s son, Jinggoy, the mayor of San Juan, a town in metropolitan Manila.

Jinggoy Estrada has been described as a regional collector of jueteng payoffs and has been subpoenaed to testify later in the trial.

Lim said she received a second $20,000 in cash from Jinggoy Estrada in February and a check--emblazoned with the mayor’s picture--for the same amount in March. She said that she collected the money on orders from Singson and that it was to be funneled to Estrada.