On behalf of my family and of President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, I first take this opportunity to express our sincerest gratitude and appreciation to the many expressions of support, as well as the prayers extended to my father in his recent operation in Hong Kong.

We are grateful, first to the Lord Almighty, and to the honorable Justices of the Sandiganbayan for their deep sense of compassion in allowing President Estrada to have his surgery in a medical institution and with doctors of his choice in Hong Kong.

Nagpapasalamat din po kami sa Iahat ng nakiisa at nagmamalasakit, at umasa po kayo na ang lahat ng inyong suporta ay hindi malilimutan ng aking ama at ng aming pamilya.

I am pleased to inform you, as you very well know, that the knee operation of President Estrada has been fairly successful.

We thank the Lord Almighty that he is now gradually recuperating from the surgery under the attention of his doctors. He, however, needs to submit to continuous and intensive therapy for the next couple of months

I also take this opportunity to assure our people that President Joseph Estrada is definitely coming back to the country to face trial and clear his name, and all of us, his co-accused, of any wrongdoing.

I wish to dispel malicious and unwarranted speculations made by some persons desperately sowing intrigues and seeking media mileage that President Estrada is going to flee and avoid prosecution.

This is farthest from President Estrada’s mind and this idea can only be concocted by paranoid and malicious persons who perhaps would take this option if they were in President Estrada’s place.

President Estrada will prove them wrong, dahil babalik siya para harapin ang mga bintang at paratang laban sa kanya ng mga taong gahaman sa kapangyarihan.

President Estrada was already given the opportunity twice in the past to go to a country of his own choice. The first offer was made by then Secretary of Justice Hernando Perez with the colatilla that he officially resign as President of the Republic of the Philippines which he refused. The second offer was repeated by Secretary Perez with the condition that President Estrada leave through the country’s back door but it was likewise rejected. In fact, President Estrada, as a Filipino, has always maintained that since he was born here, he would prefer dying in his own native land.

All we ask now is an extension of his leave to allow him to recover completely and have his doctors manage his therapy. It is on this note that I also wish to disabuse the minds of malicious quarters of recent speculations that we are engaged in another agenda of destabilization.

Rumors have been floated even in the media that we are allegedly again planning another destabilization plot.
Ano ba naman yan? Mukhang lumang-luma na po ang script na to. Bakit pa kapag may problema ang gobyernong ito, puro destabilization ang bukang bibig? Sa libing ni Fernando Poe Jr., may destabilization daw. Binarikada po ang buong Malacanang ng containerized vans dahil kulang pa raw yata iyong mga electric fence na nakapaligid doon ngayon.

Nagpa-opera lamang po si Pangulong Estrada, dinalaw ng mga kaibigan at mga dating kasapi ng Kabinete, may destabilization na naman daw.

On the contrary, if there is anyone sowing destabilization in this country, it is the government itself with all the corruption, the mismanagement, the fiscal crisis, the new taxes, the high cost of electricity, water and prime commodities, and the continuing isolation and alienation from our people.

Why invest more efforts to destabilize a government that is already destabilized? And we have only to cite past and recent surveys of dissatisfaction on the part of our people with this government, particularly Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. We firmly say and assure our people that President Joseph Estrada and all of us in the Opposition are now actively pursuing our solemn duty and role of fiscalizing and exposing the excesses and abuses of this administration, all within the framework of our Constitution, the majesty of our laws, and the sanctity of our democratic system and tradition.

If President Estrada was at all visited by former members of his Cabinet, his official family, this, we assure this Chamber, is what it is meant to be - a social visit by friends and well-wishers. If this simple act and expression of sympathy is destabilization, then we need to do a serious examination of our state of mind

May I reiterate that President Joseph Ejercito Estrada will come back to our country to join the ranks of the Opposition and to help unite our people that we may regain the glory we have lost because of mismanagement and corruption.

He will return to face the charges against him, to pursue the mission of strengthening the Opposition, and to help bring back decency, honor and justice to our government.