Philippine President Joseph Estrada on Monday denied a newspaper report that police are tapping the telephone lines of opposition legislators and members of the Senate tribunal hearing the leader's corruption case.
"There is no truth to that," Estrada told reporters. "They will do everything and hurl accusations, but there is no truth to that."
The Philippine Daily Inquirer on Monday reported that it had obtained a document proving that a member of the elite Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force had bugged telephone lines at the residences of about 100 people.
These include members of the opposition headed by Vice President Gloria Arroyo, senators and journalists. The senators are sitting as judges in the corruption case against Estrada.
"The type of surveillance was aimed at complementing the wire-tapping of both perceived enemies and potential political allies of President Estrada in the ongoing impeachment trial," the paper quoted a senior police intelligence officer, who gave them the document, as saying.
Estrada, impeached by the House of Representatives in November, is accused of graft and corruption, bribery, betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the constitution. If found guilty on any of these counts, he will be replaced by Arroyo.
The task force allegedly began a "full blown" surveillance operation, when Estrada's trial began on December 7, to determine who were Estrada's detractors and their networks, the report said.
It also allegedly gave Estrada a clear picture of the scope and magnitude of protest movements nationwide, the paper said.
House member Heherson Alvarez, secretary general of the opposition Lakas party, said the wire tapping was a "desperate maneuver to prolong President Estrada's shaky hold on power."
"I denounce in the strongest possible terms the bugging operations of a clandestine group that seems to be a part of an invisible government accountable only to one man," Alvarez said.
Opposition legislator Roilo Golez said the move fostered a "Gestapo climate" in an apparent attempt to sabotage Estrada's trial and assure his acquittal -- MANILA (AFP)
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