SC tackles disqualification case vs Estrada Tuesday

Joseph Estrada FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The Supreme Court on Tuesday will tackle the disqualification case filed against former president Joseph Estrada who has been elected mayor of Manila.

A source said the high court justices are expected to discuss the prayer of petitioner Atty. Alicia Risos-Vidal to enjoin the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from allowing Estrada to sit as Mayor of Manila beginning noon of June 30.

Estrada won over incumbent Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim who also filed an intervention on the case and seeking Estrada’s disqualification. The case has been consolidated to Vidal’s petition.

Vidal, in her petition, questioned the decision of the Comelec that dismissed with finality her disqualification complaint against Estrada. She said Estrada’s conviction for plunder had rendered him disqualified to run for public office.

She pointed that the executive pardon granted to him by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did not restore his right to seek or hold public office.

But Estrada, through his lawyers, argued that the case is already moot and academic since he has been proclaimed.

They said reversing the Comelec ruling would effectively disenfranchise the mandate given to him by some 300,000 voters in the city and effectively deprive their basic right to suffrage.

On the other hand, the Comelec told the high court that Vidal’s case was “glaringly similar or intertwined” with the disqualification cases filed against Estrada when he ran for president in 2010 which has been resolved by the high court.