Rat race for Palace is on
Erap dangles VP post to Manny, Mar, Ping and Loren
By Jocelyn Uy, Christian V. Esguerra
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:53:00 12/31/2007
The camp of deposed President Joseph Estrada has come up with a possible line-up in the event that he finally decides to run again, this time in the 2010 presidential election.
But the scenario floated by Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez would require some of the politicians who had expressed their intention to seek the presidency to settle for the next best thing—the vice presidency.
“This is a possible compromise,” Rodriguez told the Inquirer yesterday.
Under his proposal, a victory in 2010 would allow Estrada to serve the remaining three years of his term that was abbreviated by a military-backed popular revolt in 2001.
This would mean that by 2013, his victorious running-mate would take over and serve the remainder of Estrada’s fresh, six-year term, according to the congressman.
“Then, whoever that person would be could still run for president,” he explained. “That person would make a good president because of the benefit of experience.”
Estrada open to proposal
Estrada is open to the scenario painted by his spokesperson.
“Puwedeng ganon nga (It could be that way),” the former President said yesterday.
Rodriguez said such a scenario would be similar to the situation of President Macapagal-Arroyo who ran for a fresh term in 2004 after replacing Estrada three years earlier.
Slide down
The lawmaker, an immigration commissioner during the Estrada administration, rattled off the names of Roxas, Villar, Loren and Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay as a possible running-mate of the former president.
Lacson, a loser in the 2004 presidential election, has also signified his intention to run again.
“Any of them could probably slide down to vice president,” Rodriguez said.
He said the scenario he presented would still depend on Estrada’s decision to run in 2010 or just keep his status as the figurehead of the divided opposition.
Estrada said Saturday he would run again for president if the various opposition groups failed to come up with a common standard-bearer.
Sure win
He said he did not want a repeat of the 2004 election that saw President Macapagal-Arroyo winning over Fernando Poe Jr. because Lacson also ran for president, dividing the anti-Arroyo votes.
Estrada said yesterday that reclaiming his post in 2010 would be a “last priority” but reiterated that if the opposition failed to unite by then, he would run to give the opposition a “sure win.”
“But I don’t believe in staying in power too long. I am just doing my best so that there won’t be a repeat of the 2004 elections,” the 70-year-old Estrada said in a phone interview.
Asked how serious he was in running for president two years from now, he said it was too early to make his decision final.
He was still hoping that in the coming days, he would be able to keep the opposition together and make them work under one ticket.
“Lahat kasi may kanya-kanyang ambisyon (Each has an ambition [to be president]),” Estrada pointed out, adding that at this point, he would only observe and watch his allies from a distance.
“If he (Estrada) runs and wins again, that will be a vindication for him,” Rodriguez said, citing the former President’s plunder conviction.
“There is no other person who can unite the opposition and he has a proven mass base. He’s very charismatic and enjoys the sympathy of the people.”
No legal obstacle
Rodriguez, former dean of the San Sebastian law school, said there was no legal obstacle to Estrada’s decision to run again.
He said the Constitution barred only a sitting President from seeking reelection, not someone like Estrada who was forced out of office and would be running after a six-year break.
“The key word here is ‘reelection,’ which is a bar to an incumbent official,” he said. “The idea is to keep a sitting official from using the resources of his office to seek another term.”
But Ms Arroyo’s Chief Legal Counsel, Sergio Apostol, reiterated that Estrada could not run for president again.
Apostol described as legally “questionable” any move on the part of the former President to join the 2010 presidential race.
“The Constitution says that once elected and seated, you can’t run again. The moment he files a certificate of candidacy, somebody will question it before the (high) court,” said Apostol, a prosecutor during the aborted impeachment trial of Estrada in the Senate.
In the event that Estrada decides to seek anew the highest elective post, this would have no effect on the chances of the administration standard-bearer, according to Apostol.
He said the administration coalition was not threatened because “whatever he (Estrada) does, he is grateful (to Ms Arroyo for pardoning him), and will not go against the administration.”
Take it with grain of salt
Palawan Rep. Abraham Kahlil “Baham” Mitra said that everyone should take Estrada’s pronouncements with a grain of salt.
“The former President is just enjoying his newfound freedom. He has been longing to be with the masses whom he truly loves. I would do the same,” Mitra said in a text message.
Rep. Mitra said Estrada “wants to make his presence felt and remind everybody that he is a force to reckon with.”
With a report from Michael Lim Ubac
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