Press Statement

6 April 2001

NOT ESTRADA’S ARREST BUT THE FAILURE TO ARREST HIM WOULD
CAUSE NATIONAL OUTRAGE AND SOCIAL UNREST

By Jose Maria Sison

NDFP Chief Political Consultant

Mr. Estrada and his loyalists are making a joke on themselves whenever they say that mass unrest or civil war would break out as a result of his arrest.

For every person Estrada can hire to demonstrate in his favor, the broad united front that toppled him can easily raise a thousand people against him.

He might lose more of his loot by trying to rent a small crowd than by paying all his lawyers.

Just before he fled the palace, his handful of supporters melted upon the sight of 75,000 demonstrators.

He had to flee because he knew that a million people would have encircled the palace had he tried to stay a day longer.

The last time he could gather a large crowd was under the pretext of a national prayer rally.

Since then, the El Shaddai and the Iglesia ni Kristo had found him more of a liability than a dispenser of benefits for them.

At this point in time, it is not the arrest of Estrada but the failure to arrest him that would cause national outrage and social unrest. #