Updated October 22, 2009 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - Seeking vindication after his ouster from the presidency and conviction for plunder, Joseph Estrada asked Filipinos yesterday to give him a second chance.“This is the last performance of my life and I will not fail you,” the former president told a cheering crowd in Tondo, Manila, where he announced his plan to run in the 2010 elections, with Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay as his running mate.
Listen to Binay's acceptance speech here
Expecting legal challenges to his bid, Estrada said the voice of the people is the voice of God, and voters should be the final judge.
He also announced his tentative senatorial slate: his son Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Ilocos Norte Gov. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr., ZTE scandal whistle-blower Joey de Venecia, detained rebel leader Danny Lim, Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and Ompong Plaza. Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago is a guest candidate.
At his presidential inaugural in 1998, Estrada, a former movie star, had promised to deliver “the greatest performance of my life.” He was ousted less than halfway into his term and replaced by his vice president and constitutional successor, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
With Binay, Estrada said, he could rest assured that his vice president would not be plotting behind his back to bring him down.
Estrada said Binay could help turn the country into another Makati, a city where the masses receive heavy social protection protection including free education, health care and even free admission in moviehouses for senior citizens.
In his speech, Estrada decried that he had been unjustly detained for six years and isolated from his family and supporters.
“I have followed the law
and I have already forgotten all the lies and charges leveled against me. But you did not leave me,” he said referring to his supporters.
He said it’s his mission to deliver the country from poverty and culture of corruption under the Arroyo administration.
“This administration forgot about education. The budget for education did not even reach half of the country’s debt. We have P2 trillion debts at present and this will rise to P4 trillion by 2010,” he said.
“I took care of Mindanao to make it a food basket, but this administration, through the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain almost gave it up,” Estrada said.
He also vowed to be tougher in dealing with secessionists and terrorists in Mindanao.
“Mindanao will not progress if we will not finish all these kinds of terrorism. Corruption in government is rampant,” he said.
He said that under his administration, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front or MILF lost its camps in Mindanao.
He also took a swipe at the “elitists” whom he accused of having conspired to have him removed.
“Vox populi, vox dei. The voice of the people is the voice of God. But the elitists are not listening to voice of the people that is why we are here now,” he said. “Are we better off today than in 2001?”
Rivals are expected to challenge his candidacy before the Supreme Court and invoke a constitutional ban on a second term for any president.
Estrada’s camp has insisted he is not covered by the ban because he was “illegally” removed from power.
“I was demonized then unconstitutionally removed,” Estrada said.
Albert Lim of the Makati Business Club said Estrada’s poor record as president and his criminal conviction should be enough reasons for him not to run again.
“Going by his track record, why should anyone think that he’ll be a good president?” Lim asked. “He won’t be good for business.”
Despite his ouster, conviction and detention, Estrada steadfastly denied the charges of plundering government coffers through kickbacks and illegal gambling payoffs. He never parted with a visible symbol of his power – his trademark wristband.
“During the lowest point in my life, the poor did not abandon me,” he said.
Estrada rose to movie stardom in his early 20s, playing tough guys with a soft spot for the needy – roles that earned him the hearts of the masses that make up almost half of the population.
In the 1970s, he won five best actor awards in the Philippines’ version of the Oscars.
Estrada entered politics in 1969 with his election as mayor of Manila’s San Juan suburb, a post he kept for 17 years.
He was elected senator in 1987, then vice president in 1992 despite a life of boozing, gambling and womanizing – foibles that humanized and endeared him to ordinary Filipinos but disturbed the influential Roman Catholic Church and the business community.
He has acknowledged fathering children with several women other than his wife.
He banked on his macho, Filipino everyman charisma to win the presidency in 1998 with one of the largest margins in recent memory.
Legal basis
Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and University of the East dean of the College of Law Amado Valdez said there is no legal impediment to Estrada’s joining the presidential race in 2010.
“Many legal luminaries, former Supreme Court justices, well-known lawyers have conducted a study on whether President Estrada can run or not. Is President Estrada running for reelection? No, he is not running for reelection. He is running for another election because he was not allowed to finish his term and he was unduly removed from the presidency,” Rodriguez said.
“The rich businessmen conspired with the disgruntled members of the military and hungry for power politicians to remove him. He relinquished his post to prevent bloodshed,” he said.
Rodriguez said that constitutional provision banning reelection of the president only applies to an incumbent president or one who has finished his six-year term.
“President Estrada is not the incumbent. The ban on reelection is intended to prevent an incumbent president to use the government machinery during his reelection bid,” he said.
“Even Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno, in one of the rulings of the Supreme Court, said that the better policy approach is to let the people decide. He said the Supreme Court may err, but the sovereign people will not,” he said.
“The prohibition on reelection for president applies only to incumbent presidents and those who have finished six years term,” Valdez, for his part, said.
“That intention of the law is to prevent the incumbent from using the machinery of the government for his reelection bid,” he said.
No endorsement
Chief Justice Puno, meanwhile, said he is not endorsing Estrada.
Puno was reacting to newspaper ads from the Estrada camp that quoted him as saying that the people should decide who should be the next president.
“It is quite clear from the paid ad that the quote is from Chief Justice Puno’s opinion in the 2004 Tecson case which has peculiar facts as it involved the citizenship of FPJ. It is not an endorsement and should not be perceived or used as such by any candidate,” SC spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said.
Marquez also said Estrada’s camp did not even get Puno’s permission on the use of his photo and ruling.
He said Puno’s decision not to endorse any candidate in next year’s polls “is also in keeping with the nature of the Moral Force Movement convened by the Chief Justice to be non-partisan.”
Unfazed
Malacañang said Estrada’s announcement was nothing.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita noted that Estrada has been making these pronouncements about his political plans for 2010 since his release from house arrest.
“I think we have heard enough, we have read enough about the plans of former President Estrada. I don’t see why there should be any surprises about his (declaring) publicly what he plans to do,” Ermita said.
He said it is clear in the conditions of Estrada’s pardon that he cannot seek an elective post again.
Eventually, Ermita said the courts would have to rule on the matter.
“I believe that in the end, everything will have to be settled judicially. I’m sure there will be citizens who will come out in the open questioning his certificate of candidacy and therefore, they might bring this matter to court, maybe in the highest court,” Ermita said.
“What I’m only saying is that somehow there has got to be a judicial remedy to this to end any speculation as to whether it’s alright for him to run or not to run,” he added.
Irresponsible
In Koronadal City, the MILF assailed Estrada for his bellicose statement on dealing with insurgencies.
In a radio interview here, Gadzali Jaafar, vice-chairman for political affairs of the MILF, said Estrada’s “irresponsible statements” would only “aggravate” the situation in Mindanao.
“Palalain lang niya ang situation dito sa Mindanao. Hindi kami natatakot sa sinasabi niya (He will just make things worse here in Mindanao. We’re not afraid of his threats),” Jaafar said over Bombo Radyo Koronadal.
Jaafar and other MILF officials believe Estrada is using the Mindanao to attract votes.
He said the ousted leader should “shut up” and withdraw from the presidential race because, he said, “he has no chance of winning.”
No defection
Meanwhile, Environment Secretary Lito Atienza denied reports that he has jumped to Estrada’s camp.
A newspaper report (not The STAR) said Estrada was poised to announce his choice of Atienza as the United Opposition’s and Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino’s Manila mayoralty bet.
“Don’t believe it. It’s an enterprise story,” Atienza said. “I don’t want to totally deny but it is not true that I jumped ship. I don’t jump ship, you know that,” he said.
When asked about persistent rumors that he was planning to run again as Manila mayor he said he didn’t want to talk about politics. – With Marvin Sy, Edu Punay, Ramil Bajo, Katherine Adraneda, AP
Source: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=516326&publicationSubCategoryId=63
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