MANILA, Philippines ? He said he was talking from a location shoot, rushing fight scenes for his comeback movie where he is pitted against three thugs.

?And I?m doing it without a double,? boasted deposed president Joseph Estrada who at 72 is flexing his muscles again, not just on a make-believe movie set but also on the political stage.

?I will give [my critics] free passes to my movie to show that I?m physically fit,? said the movie star-turned-politician, who two days earlier formally declared his bid to return to Malacañang and redeem a name tainted with corruption scandals that led to a criminal conviction.

Age-defying run

By again setting his eye on the presidency, Estrada may not only be taunting his detractors and challenging constitutional prohibitions against reelection of former presidents.

He is also defying age. A victory in the May 2010 elections would make him the oldest to assume the presidency, a distinction that currently belongs to Fidel Ramos who was elected in 1992 at 64.

?I might even be healthier than some of the [other] candidates,? Estrada said in a phone interview.

He said the results of the last executive checkup that he had last month at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center would attest to this. And he is willing to open his hospital records for scrutiny by the doubters.

He said he was actually worried that the latest tests would reveal problems in his lungs since he has never stopped smoking. But then ?everything turned out to be clear,? he said.

Red wine

Estrada said he?s down to half a pack of cigarettes a day. And he now limits himself to some red wine before dinner, said the man known for his late-night carousing.

As part of his fitness regimen, he sweats it out at home in his ?portable sauna machine? and does ?light calisthenics? thrice a week, he said.

Aches and pains

Yet throughout his six-year detention while on trial for plunder, much of it under house arrest at his sprawling vacation estate in Tanay, Rizal, Estrada was always complaining of various aches and discomforts.

From 2001 to 2007, he repeatedly asked the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court to be let out of rest-house arrest to undergo various medical examinations and procedures, including eye and knee surgeries, the latter done in Hong Kong in 2004.

The titanium knee replacement has turned him into a ?bionic man,? Estrada likes to joke.

In 2002, the Sandiganbayan granted his request to take a ritual ?healing bath? at a religious shrine in Caloocan where the ground water is believed to offer miraculous cures and aid in spiritual renewal.

In 2001, while in detention at the presidential suite of the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City, Estrada was reported to be suffering from pulmonary ailments and ?mental stress? as a result of his disgraceful ouster and arrest.

Campaign-ready

Estrada was convicted of plunder in September 2007 and sentenced to up to 40 years in prison. However, he was pardoned by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo almost immediately after.

Remarkably, even those who now question the legality of Estrada?s reelection bid concede that the man appears to be healthy enough to wage another presidential campaign.

?In terms of physical fitness, I?m not sure there?s a perceived problem there. That may be the least of his problems,? said Gabriel Claudio, secretary general of the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD.

?The more formidable problem that he will have to surmount is the constitutional issue of his prohibition to run for president,? said Claudio, who is also the presidential political adviser.

Lakas-Kampi-CMD vice president Prospero Pichay agreed that Estrada ?can last the campaign. He?s been going around for the last 12 months. He?ll be able to stand it.?

Estrada has a snappy answer to skeptics who think he?s too old for a ?Take 2? at the presidency. He noted that US President Ronald Reagan was hitting 70 when he began the first of two terms, while Nelson Mandela was approaching 76 when he became South Africa?s first black president.

And so he wants to show everyone that he?s still got some mojo ? at least onscreen.

Months earlier, Estrada started sending out this message by appearing in a television ad for an anti-arthritic drug, where he was teased by a jogger in a park: ?Erap, can you still run??

Wrinkled fists jabbing the air, he claims he still can. With TJ Burgonio and Kate Pedroso, Research