Nothing significant about Estrada visit with Arroyo, says son Jinggoy

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—It was just a friendly call and people should not read too much into it, said Senator Jinggoy Estrada of the visit his father, former president now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, paid to detained ex-president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo before Christmas.

Estrada on Wednesday quashed any speculation of a political alliance brewing between the erstwhile rivals ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

“I don’t see anything, nothing,” said Estrada curtly over the phone, stressing that it was nothing but a goodwill visit by an ex-president to another ex-president at Christmas time.

The elder Estrada was merely reciprocating Arroyo’s visit to him and the senator when both were detained on plunder charges in 2001, the younger Estrada said.

“It was in the spirit of Christmas. I don’t think they talked politics,” he said.

The elder Estrada paid Arroyo a visit in her detention suite at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center on December 23, where she has been held since October 2012 on plunder charges.

It was the same suite Estrada was held in before his trial for plunder from 2001 to 2007.

Estrada later said the two merely reminisced about their childhood days in San Juan City over spaghetti, cake and ham.

The elder Estrada was toppled by a people power revolt in January 2001 amid charges of inefficiency, incompetence and corruption. Then Vice President Arroyo was sworn in to serve his unfinished term.

From Estrada’s ouster to the filing of plunder charges against him up to his conviction in 2007, and beyond, there had been political bad blood between him and Arroyo.

But Senator Estrada said his father had long forgiven Arroyo, who was seen by the Estradas as a key player in the “conspiracy by the elite” to oust the ex-president from office.

He said the elder Estrada, who was elected mayor of Manila in May last year, was just waiting for last Christmas to visit Arroyo.

“Knowing my dad, he has a forgiving heart. He is always ready to lend a helping hand,” he said.

Sources close to the Arroyo camp said she didn’t approve of the filing of charges against Estrada in 2001. Weeks after his conviction for plunder in 2007, she pardoned him.

Political analyst Ramon Casiple, however, saw the Christmas visit as a prelude to talks on a possible alliance between the Estrada and Arroyo camps in 2016.

If they cannot field a candidate of their own, they can support a common candidate, Casiple said, adding that Vice President Jejomar Binay was courting the support of both for his presidential run in 2016.

Senator Estrada had earlier been seen as vice presidential material until he was linked to the P10-billion pork barrel scam, Casiple said.

“I don’t think they’ll reconcile. What we’re seeing are the pragmatic approaches of both that could lead more or less to an alliance. These are the pragmatics of traditional politics,” Casiple said by phone.

Former senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., head of the Center for Local Governance at Makati University, viewed the visit as more an act of kindness by Estrada than an attempt at a political alignment.

“Over and above whatever prospective alliance that might be formed, it was an act of compassion and Christianity to a fellow official who is now at the receiving end of the law,” he said by phone.

“I’m not sure if there was an underlying motivation for that kindness. To begin with, I’m not sure that Erap needs any support from Gloria. He has his own drawing power,” he added.

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