A general strike has been called throughout the Philippines today to reinforce the dramatic decision of the House of Representatives in Manila yesterday to impeach President Joseph Estrada.
The impeachment means that President Estrada will face a trial by the Philippines Senate on charges of corruption, probably later this month. Organisers of the strike, who include church and trade union leaders and business interests, want Mr Estrada to leave office immediately, rather than fight a Senate trial he might not lose.
Several major companies and financial brokerages have said they will join the strike, underlining their concern that by clinging to office Mr Estrada is doing serious damage to the economy.
Bishop Orlando Quevedo said the Catholic Bishops Conference and all dioceses stand "full force" behind the action, and support "all peaceful and legal means" to force Mr Estrada to resign over mounting charges of corruption.
The Philippine army was placed on alert to prevent violence during today's work stoppage. Mr Estrada, elected as a champion of the poor, still has some popular support among the most downtrodden of Manila's inhabitants, thousands of whom rallied at the weekend to show their resentment over the campaign to make him step down.
Public transport is expected to be immobilised in 42 cities and towns, and troops will be placed at key installations.
The Philippines House of Representatives erupted in cheers when the impeachment decision was announced by the House Speaker, Mr Manuel Villar. Mr Villar told legislators that a motion seeking Mr Estrada's impeachment on charges of bribery and corruption was sent up to the Senate for trial since the required one-third of the 218 House members had endorsed the move.
Several representatives shouted "Erap resign", using the nickname from the President's days as a film actor. But government supporters protested that a rollcall of members, declaration of a quorum and other formalities had not been observed. They said the move was unconstitutional and that they would appeal against it to the Supreme Court.
The 22-member Senate may in any event throw out the impeachment motion. There still appears to be sufficient support for Mr Estrada, despite a stampede of defectors last week in the House and Senate.
Yesterday, the senators voted 12-7 to replace the Senate president, Mr Franklin Drilon, who joined the opposition, with a supporter of Mr Estrada. A two-thirds majority of the Senate is required to remove a president from office.
Mr Estrada said last week he was innocent and would not resign over "systematic and sinister disinformation" coming "from forces seeking to destabilise the government and promote their selfish agenda".
"No amount of rallies can force me to step down," he said, in an interview on a Manila radio station. "I appeal to you not to go through with it. We have a crisis. Let's join hands to pull out of this, for the sake of the nation . . . I did not become President to rake up money."
The crisis arose when Mr Estrada was accused in October by a provincial governor, Mr Luis Singson, of taking payments from him of 800 million pesos (£4 million) to protect an illegal gambling syndicate, as well as 130 million pesos in pay-offs from tobacco interests.
On Thursday, the President admitted he had been offered a 200million pesos bribe by Mr Sing son, but that the governor had then given the money to one of his aides who deposited it in the bank account of a Muslim youth foundation - which the opposition alleges is a money laundering operation for the President.
Mr Estrada told reporters on Friday that he had been too busy running the country to report the bribe. Last week a former chairman of the Philippine Security and Exchange Commission add ed fuel to the fire by accusing Mr Estrada of receiving 1,000 million pesos when the government sold a controlling stake in Philippine Long Distance Telephone.
Mr Perfecto Yasay said that the President also gained 800 million pesos from a sharp increase in the stocks of a gambling company which is under investigation for insider trading.
Mr Estrada dismissed the accusations as "complete lies", saying he did not receive a "single centavo" from either transaction. The Makati Business Club, a collection of the country's top bluechip companies, and the Phil ippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry have both backed calls for Mr Estrada to resign.
Manila's main share index fell 33 points, or 2.2 per cent, as investors liquidated positions after last week's strong rally.
AFP adds: The Indonesian and Philippine navies will conduct joint patrols along their border in the Pacific Ocean to combat gun smuggling, the state Antara news agency said yesterday in Jakarta.
"The Philippines and Indonesia will deploy two warships each," the commander of Indonesia's eastern fleet, Admiral Joko Sumaryono, was quoted as saying. Admiral Sumaryono said the operation was intended to prevent gun smuggling.