MANILA—The Commission on Elections’ ruling stripping Emilio Ramon “ER’’ Ejercito of the Laguna governorship could be part of a concerted effort to marginalize the Ejercito clan, Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito said Thursday.
Ejercito said the Comelec ruling on his cousin’s case, the forthcoming Supreme Court ruling on the disqualification case against his father, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, and charges linking him to the pork barrel scam were happening at the same time.
“I hope it’s a coincidence, but it’s becoming too much of a coincidence that these are happening at the same time. So you can’t stop us from thinking that there’s a concerted effort by the administration to remove the Ejercitos, the Estradas,’’ he told a Senate press forum.
Laguna Governor ER Ejercito PHOTO from SCENEMA CONCEPT INTERNATIONAL INC. /CONTRIBUTED IMAGE
He observed that there appeared to be a pattern of quick resolution of disqualification cases against the Ejercitos.
The Comelec as a whole upheld its first Division’s September 2013 ruling finding ER Ejercito guilty of spending beyond the P4.5 million limit vis-à-vis the 1.5 million registered voters in Laguna.
The body, which resolved that candidates may spend P3 for every registered voter, said the Laguna governor spent P6 million on TV advertisement alone.
The governor vowed to fight the Comelec ruling in the Supreme Court, arguing that 550,000 people voted him into office.
Senator Ejercito said that while the Comelec commissioners voted unanimously to strip his cousin of the top provincial post, he remained hopeful the high court “would look at the rightful winner.’’
“I’m hoping that the Supreme Court would look at the will of the people.… We all know for a fact that everybody overspends,’’ he said, adding, “Maybe we were the only ones who were honest enough to declare what we really spent.’’
Otherwise, the senator said a final ruling finding the Laguna governor guilty of overspending should be honored.
“We are a government of laws. If it’s found that he, indeed, overspent, I guess we just have to follow,’’ he said.
His father, Mayor Estrada, is fighting a disqualification case in the Supreme Court.
Lawyer Alicia Risos-Vidal has questioned the Comelec ruling dismissing with finality her disqualification complaint against Estrada. She had argued that Estrada’s conviction of plunder had rendered him disqualified to run for public office.
She said that the executive pardon granted Joseph Estrada by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did not restore his right to seek or hold public office.
Recently, the high court ordered Estrada and Vidal to submit their final arguments.
Senator Ejercito himself has been dragged into the pork barrel scam controversy after his name was mentioned as being among those who transacted with alleged mastermind Janet Lim Napoles. He has been cleared by Napoles’s lawyer of any hand in the scam.
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