Petitioner vs Erap gives up: ‘Hard to change 11-3 SC vote’

Mayor Joseph Estrada

A day after the Supreme Court ruled that he has the right to run for public office, Mayor Joseph Estrada can further rest easy as the lead petitioner in the disqualification case against him has ruled out plans to file an appeal.

“After deliberation with my lawyer retired Justice Rodolfo Palattao [of the Sandiganbayan], we made a decision not to file any MR (motion for reconsideration). This will clear the air for Mayor Estrada and for Manilans as well,” Alicia Risos-Vidal said in a text message on Thursday.

Vidal, a lawyer who filed the disqualification case against Estrada, conceded that the 11-3 vote against her petition would be difficult to reverse.

“I respect the collective wisdom of the justices and the Supreme Court, and with 11 of them voting to dismiss my petition, it will be very hard for me to convince them to change their votes,” she said.

Vidal added that she was content with the fact that Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and Associate Justice Antonio Carpio—the most senior among the magistrates—were on her side. The two, along with Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, cast the three dissenting votes.

The high tribunal had ruled that the deposed president who was convicted of plunder has the right to seek office as former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo granted him “absolute” pardon a month after he was found guilty in September 2007. Her action restored Estrada’s “qualifications to stand as candidate in the last (2013) mayoral elections,” the court said.

Vidal took her case to the Supreme Court after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) junked her disqualification bid against Estrada in April 2013. The poll body had ruled that her petition was similar to a dismissed disqualification bid against Estrada in 2010 when he ran again for the presidency but lost.

For Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, the high court ruling meant that there were no more legal obstacles should Estrada decide to run for president in 2016. The other day, however, the Manila mayor said that he has no plans for now to run for higher office.

Speaking at an impromptu press conference on Thursday after the meet-and-greet for her book “Stupid is Forever” at Glorietta in Makati City, Santiago observed that should the question be elevated to “another environment, for example, in the moral sphere, then [Estrada’s] enemies [would] have a field day dissecting his moral character.”

Another factor to consider was Estrada’s health, she said, adding that “most people who run for the presidency… are already senior citizens.”

“So I’m afraid that whether we like it or not, health will have to be a very big factor,” she said, noting the “enormity of the job.”

In her case, for example, she stressed she was “willing to consider the presidency” because of some people, “but [this would] depend on my doctors.”

Santiago has been battling lung cancer since June although she recently said that she was in remission. With Kristine Felisse Mangunay