A day after moving to his new Manila address and confirming his mayoral bid, former President Joseph Estrada on Thursday secured a new community tax certificate and entered the voters’ list as a Manileño.
Meanwhile, the man he wanted to unseat, Mayor Alfredo Lim, said his constituents were already smart enough to see through “the baseless words” of those “who are part of the corruption that we need to eradicate.”
“I am back in my birthplace,” Estrada told the Inquirer after getting his computerized cedula from City Hall, referring to his roots in Tondo, Manila. “I will spend the rest of my life serving the people where I was born.”
Estrada was welcomed by 28 Manila councilors who all wore orange, his campaign color, and some city government employees who chanted his nickname “Erap.”
This was followed by chants of “Allowance!” and “Sahod! (Salary!),” apparent references to the payroll funds that were scrapped by Lim on orders from state auditors, a move that purportedly caused a rift between him and Vice Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso.
Estrada and his entourage then walked to the nearby local office of the Commission on Elections to start processing his registration as a voter moving from San Juan City to Manila.
Shortly before noon, he was officially registered as a voter under Manila’s Precinct 2591-B in Barangay 581, Zone 54, in the 4th District.
At Liwasang Bonifacio, Lim spoke at a program commemorating the 115th death anniversary of revolutionary hero Andres Bonifacio.
Without naming names, he took a swipe at critics who he said may be the roadblocks on the “straight and narrow path” that Bonifacio’s life exemplified, people who “have their own agenda to get the people’s votes.”
“They are like those narrow-minded people who blocked the straight and narrow path of Bonifacio because of their personal ambitions. They are part of the corruption that we need to eradicate,” he said.
“It is important to show support to those in need not just through words and promises but also through action,” he stressed.
Lim said Filipinos had grown smart enough to see through empty promises. “They can no longer be swayed with baseless words.”