MANILA, Philippines — Prosecutors began the impeachment trial of President Joseph Estrada on Thursday, calling the political champion of poor Filipinos a "thief" who used kickback money to finance a lavish lifestyle, including mansions for several mistresses.
One of the prosecutors, Rep. Joker Arroyo, produced a check for $3 million with a signature that he said was a mirror copy of the presidential signature on Philippine bank notes. He accused Estrada of having hidden assets in a bank account under a false name.
"We cannot have the country run by a thief like this," he said.
As the prosecutors displayed pictures of the mansions and compared Estrada to famously extravagant former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, tens of thousands of Filipinos marched and waved signs outside to demand the president's ouster.
The protesters said they want Estrada removed even if he is acquitted of the corruption allegations that have pitched this nation into crisis and could severely test its democracy.
Estrada may have enough partisan support to win acquittal. It would take two-thirds of the 22 senators to convict the president on any of the four charges — bribery, corruption, violating the constitution and betraying the public trust. Eight senators are viewed as Estrada allies — enough to acquit.
Estrada says he is innocent. Thousands of his supporters also rallied outside the Senate on Thursday, and police were deployed to maintain order.
Inside the Senate, prosecutors said Estrada, a former movie star, took payoffs from illegal numbers games and skimmed tobacco tax money — allegations made in October by a provincial governor and reputed gambling lord, Luis Singson, who will be the key witness.
Defense attorneys tried to destroy Singson's credibility, calling him a liar who falsified documents.
The senators, who will determine Estrada's guilt or innocence in the unprecedented trial, were shown pictures of the mansions he allegedly bought for mistresses.
One is occupied by former actress Laarni Enriquez, with whom Estrada reportedly has three children. It features a master bedroom that Arroyo said "could well be the dwelling house of 10 to 20 families."
Arroyo compared Estrada to Marcos, the late dictator whose wife Imelda's thousands of pairs of shoes made headlines after he was deposed in 1986.
"Twenty years of the Marcos years, he never had these kind of mansions," he said. "Two years of Estrada, you have all these mansions. In just two years. I wonder who is the bigger crook?"
Estrada, who goes by the nickname "Erap," is reported to have had seven children with five women other than his wife. Filipinos are riveted by the juicy political drama that could include testimony from some of Estrada's mistresses.
Defense lawyer Estelito Mendoza, a former justice minister, accused prosecutors of putting undue emphasis on mistresses and mansions.
"The mansions were not mentioned in the charges," Mendoza said. "In that case, they cannot be tried."
Estrada stayed Thursday in the presidential palace, where aides described him as relaxed and drinking coffee while watching the televised trial.
The scandal erupted in this Southeast Asian nation after Singson alleged that he gave the president more than $8 million from illegal numbers games and $2.6 million from tobacco taxes. Singson is a reputed lord of the illegal numbers game "jueteng," played throughout the Philippines.
Estrada's defenders include Imelda Marcos, the former first lady whose shoe collection made her famous. Influential opponents, including former President Corazon Aquino and Manila's Roman Catholic archbishop, Jaime Cardinal Sin, said earlier Thursday that Estrada should quit now, sparing the nation a long, divisive trial.
"You have lost the moral ascendancy to govern us," Sin said.
The first witness Thursday was a former national police chief, Gen. Roberto Lastimoso, who said Estrada told him to "coordinate" jueteng issues with Singson. Lastimoso said he interpreted this as an instruction to go easy on illegal gambling.
Prosecutors also called a second witness, but the day's proceedings ended before she could be questioned in detail.
Estrada may command the support of enough senators to survive the trial: Some appeared to pay scant attention Thursday, with one reading a book and another chatting on a mobile phone.
"I almost fell asleep," said Sen. John Osmena, an Estrada ally.
Whatever the outcome, the president's critics have vowed to keep fighting.
Estrada has loyal followers among millions of Filipino slum dwellers but has alienated the nation's influential Catholic leadership and much of the business community. The crisis hit the stock market badly, and the Philippine currency, the peso, has plunged sharply.