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Estrada’s Son Is Implicated at Philippine Impeachment Trial

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From Associated Press

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.

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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.

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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.

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