Key Men at Estrada Impeachment Trial Are Comrades
November 15, 2000 - 0:0
MANILA The two men who between them will conduct the impeachment trial of Philippine President Joseph Estrada are old comrades who together cut their political teeth opposing strongman Ferdinand Marcos.
Senate President Aquilino Pimentel and Chief Justice Hilario Davide were both elected delegates to the 1971 constitutional convention which produced the Constitution Marcos threw out when he declared martial law in 1972.
They were minority members of Marcos' rubber-stamp Parliament in the early 1980s. Both had worked as law professors.
Fighting graft is a shared interest which should come in handy as they preside over the trial of Estrada, who has been accused of corruption.
As a senator in 1987, Pimentel coauthored a code of ethics for public officials, while Davide, as a member of Parliament in 1978/84, authored amendments to give more teeth to the anti-graft and corrupt practices act.
Pimentel, elected senate president on Monday, leads 21 other senators who will sit as the trial body for Estrada's impeachment case.
Davide, as chief justice, will preside over the trial without voting rights.
The two rose to national prominence after the 1986 "people power" revolt which ousted Marcos and brought in Corazon Aquino as the new president.
She enlisted both their services Pimentel as cabinet member first and then senator, and Davide, as a member of the commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution under which Estrada will be tried.
Pimentel told Reuters that he was once close to Estrada the two are godfathers to each other's eldest sons but was confident that would not color his judgment.
"We have to answer to history for whatever mis-steps we will make," he said.
Their friendship has soured of late, he added.
On several occasions, Pimentel said he had rebuffed Estrada.
In 1999, he voted against the Philippine-United States visiting forces agreement that Estrada had endorsed to Congress as urgent.
He said he had also opposed Estrada's position in favor of the death penalty and legalizing gambling.
In 1998, Pimentel said he sent back Estrada's Christmas gift a cheque for the amount of 200,000 pesos (U.S.$4,000).
The next year, he returned a luxury vehicle that Estrada had assigned for his use.
For months now, Pimentel said "the president has not talked to me and I have not talked to him".
Davide became associate justice of the Supreme Court in January 1991, and was appointed by Estrada as chief justice in November 1998. Now 65, Davide has five more years to go before reaching the mandatory age of retirement.
(Reuter)
Senate President Aquilino Pimentel and Chief Justice Hilario Davide were both elected delegates to the 1971 constitutional convention which produced the Constitution Marcos threw out when he declared martial law in 1972.
They were minority members of Marcos' rubber-stamp Parliament in the early 1980s. Both had worked as law professors.
Fighting graft is a shared interest which should come in handy as they preside over the trial of Estrada, who has been accused of corruption.
As a senator in 1987, Pimentel coauthored a code of ethics for public officials, while Davide, as a member of Parliament in 1978/84, authored amendments to give more teeth to the anti-graft and corrupt practices act.
Pimentel, elected senate president on Monday, leads 21 other senators who will sit as the trial body for Estrada's impeachment case.
Davide, as chief justice, will preside over the trial without voting rights.
The two rose to national prominence after the 1986 "people power" revolt which ousted Marcos and brought in Corazon Aquino as the new president.
She enlisted both their services Pimentel as cabinet member first and then senator, and Davide, as a member of the commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution under which Estrada will be tried.
Pimentel told Reuters that he was once close to Estrada the two are godfathers to each other's eldest sons but was confident that would not color his judgment.
"We have to answer to history for whatever mis-steps we will make," he said.
Their friendship has soured of late, he added.
On several occasions, Pimentel said he had rebuffed Estrada.
In 1999, he voted against the Philippine-United States visiting forces agreement that Estrada had endorsed to Congress as urgent.
He said he had also opposed Estrada's position in favor of the death penalty and legalizing gambling.
In 1998, Pimentel said he sent back Estrada's Christmas gift a cheque for the amount of 200,000 pesos (U.S.$4,000).
The next year, he returned a luxury vehicle that Estrada had assigned for his use.
For months now, Pimentel said "the president has not talked to me and I have not talked to him".
Davide became associate justice of the Supreme Court in January 1991, and was appointed by Estrada as chief justice in November 1998. Now 65, Davide has five more years to go before reaching the mandatory age of retirement.
(Reuter)