Erap to observe prayerful Holy Week in resthouse

For the third straight year, former president Joseph Estrada will spend a “prayerful" Holy Week in his rest house in Tanay, Rizal. Estrada’s spokesman Didagen Dilangalen said the former president, who said he has found God while in detention, will take part in activities such as reading the “Pasyon." “Kung ginagawa niya noon pa, ngayon more reason sapagka’t Semana Santa ngayon (He has been doing this regularly. But this week he has all the more reason to do so because it’s Holy Week)," Dilangalen said in an interview on GMA7’s DZBB radio Wednesday. He noted that Estrada is thankful for “small blessings," including the Sandiganbayan’s decision allowing him to hear a birthday Mass at St. Peter’s Parish in Quezon City April 19. Estrada was also happy over a recent Pulse Asia survey indicating he is the best alternative to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The graft court had granted a motion by Estrada to hear Mass on April 19, his 69th birthday, immediately before his trial for plunder at the nearby Sandiganbayan. It will be the third year for Estrada to spend Holy Week in his rest house at Tanay, where he was transferred in late 2003. Estrada was ousted in a revolt that he had dubbed as “rich people’s power," in January 2001. That revolt catapulted Mrs. Arroyo to power. His arrest in April 2001 over plunder charges triggered an uprising by his followers at EDSA, which culminated in a bloody failed siege on Malacañang on May 1, 2001. The former President was initially detained in Laguna but was moved to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City, and then to Rizal province. Since March, he has been taking the witness stand in his own defense to debunk charges that he received payoffs from jueteng, an illegal numbers game.-GMANews.TV