MANILA (AFP) - Disgraced ex-Philippine leader Joseph Estrada was kept out of the limelight today in a heavily secured hospital as his successor President Gloria Arroyo sought her first mandate from the people amid a glare of publicity.
A fresh-looking Arroyo returned to her hometown of Lubao in Pampanga province north of Manila to vote in key congressional and local elections.
She was accompanied by husband Miguel, a throng of security personnel and a battery of reporters and photographers.
Wearing a simple white blouse and blue pants, Arroyo was warmly welcomed by her provincemates who had lined up the streets leading to the polling precinct to catch a glimpse of the petite 54-year-old.
In contrast, Estrada cast his vote inside a heavily fortified hospital bereft of any media coverage, after an anti-graft court reversed an earlier ruling allowing him to vote publicly.
But a video clip over ABS-CBN television showed a grim-looking Estrada, wearing a brown jacket and his trademark white wrist band with the presidential emblem, casting his vote at the hospital.
Police have warned that the sight of Estrada, jailed pending his corruption trial, trooping back to his bailiwick in suburban San Juan town could ignite an outpouring of support for the ex-movie actor hugely popular among the masses.
A special team of election officers were dispatched to the hospital to record Estrada's vote in private, as a contingent of scout rangers and police special action forces cordoned off reporters.
Indelible ink
Hospital sources said the former president initially refused to cast his ballot without media coverage.
His lawyer, Jose Flaminiano later said Estrada appeared healthy. "He was upbeat, he was in high spirits. I think he is looking to a peaceful and orderly elections."
At least two armoured patrol carriers were seen parked in the premises of the hospital, where Estrada was airlifted at the weekend for medical check-ups from a special bungalow cell in a police camp south of Manila.
Arroyo, on arrival at the voting ventre in her Lubao hometown, had her fingerprints marked with indelible ink - a traditional election feature here to prevent people from voting twice.
Arroyo sat down in a desk usually reserved for pupils inside a classroom converted into a polling station, pausing every now and then to flash a smile at the cameras.
She later kissed election workers' cheeks and made a brief round to shake hands with voters before making a short statement.
"I have exercised my right as a citizen," Arroyo said in a hoarse voice.
"Now what what we have to do is guard our votes."
She was apparently suggesting that poll watchdog groups should work doubly hard to prevent possible fraud, a common feature in Philippine elections.
Arroyo seeks control of Senate
The president's husband Miguel Arroyo said she was about two hours late to the polling station because she had to catch up on her sleep.
"Her voice is already hoarse," he said.
Arroyo was swept into power by a military-backed popular revolt in January that deposed the graft-tainted Estrada, whose wife leads the opposition slate in the all-important senate race.
Arroyo had tirelessly led the campaign of her candidates, who need to win at least eight of 13 senate seats to give her control of the Senate.
She said in a televised message prior to casting her vote that she was using the elections to protect the gains of democracy.
"The ballot is the weapon that spells the difference between democracy and dictatorship," said Arroyo, who in the past week had visited Estrada's strongholds in a bid to court the poor and dispel the perception she is president only of the elite.
The elections came two weeks after Arroyo crushed a siege on her official residence by some 50,000 Estrada supporters, in what she claimed was a rebellion intended to unseat her and install a junta.
