MANILA, Philippines?A spiritual advisor of former president Joseph Estrada who also happens to be one of the framers of the 1987 Constitution accepted the Commission on Elections Second Division's ruling to allow the deposed president to run again in the May 10 elections.

Novaliches Bishop Emeritus Teodoro Bacani said he accepted the Comelec's decision to leave it up to the electorate whether they want Estrada again as president, regardless of the constitutional prohibition against the re-election of a president.

Bacani, a member of the 1986 Constitutional Convention that drafted the 1987 Constitution, said the drafters may have unwittingly left a ?gap? that would allow Estrada to seek re-election.

?Although I believe that the Convention was really intent on barring all who have held the post of president from running again, there is still a small opening that allows Erap to run again,? Bacani said in a phone interview Thursday.

The Comelec ?was right to leave it up to the people to decide whether they want Estrada to go back to Malacañang or not since they have the right to choose who they want as the next president,? the prelate continued in Filipino.

Article VII Section 4 of the Constitution states: ?The President shall not be eligible for any reelection. No person who has succeeded as President and has served as such for more than four years shall be qualified for election to the same office at any time?.

Estrada's camp claimed that the re-election prohibition does not apply to him since he is not the incumbent president and since he only served less than three years of his six-year term when he was ousted in a popular revolt in 2001 due to corruption charges.

Instead of ruling on the constitutional issue, the Comelec Second Division dismissed the disqualification cases filed by three petitioners saying they would just let the people decide if they want to elect Estrada again.

Personally, Bacani stressed, he did not want Estrada to run again since the country needed change.

?Personally, it's not okay with me that he would run again because the country needs genuine change, a new leader who will lead us,? he said in Filipino, adding that another Estrada presidency may only lead to a repeat of what the people have gone through in the past.