‘Erap’ to run in 2010 if opposition is divided

Saturday, July 25, 2009
By Larry Madarang, Correspondent
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BAGUIO CITY: Former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada on Friday said that he would call for a meeting of all opposition presidential aspirants to unite all opposition candidates for next year’s presidential polls.

“Let us give time for all opposition presidential aspirants for them to feel the pulse of the people and voluntarily withdraw in order for the opposition to have only one official candidate,” Estrada told a press conference here.

He did not give an official statement if he will join the presidential fray but said that if presidential candidates do not heed the call for unity, “I reiterate that I myself will run for the position.”

The latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey on the best leader to succeed President Gloria Arroyo was topped by Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. with 33 percent followed by Estrada with 25 percent.

According to former Senate President Ernesto Maceda, United Opposition spokesman, Estrada still has the numbers to win the presidency.

“We have felt the pulse of the masses and they are still for President Estrada,” he said, adding that there is the underdog sympathy factor going for Estrada.

He said that Estrada is not disqualified from joining the presidential race in 2010. The ousted president can file his certificate of candidacy in November as mandated by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Maceda added.

He said that a study conducted by a collegial body composed of former justices, five deans from prestigious law schools and noted lawyers state that the statement “The President shall not be eligible for any reelection” only applies to an incumbent but not to a past president.

The reasons for prohibition were merely to prevent the incumbent president from having an undue advantage of using the powers of the office for a reelection bid, he said.

Teodoro’s odyssey

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro promised a victory in 2010 for Lakas-Kampi CMD moments after taking his party oath also Friday in a political odyssey that could lead him to the ruling party’s presidential nomination and possibly the Philippine presidency in next year’s elections.

With his formal entry to the coalition party, Teodoro will now be included in the selection process for the party’s standard-bearer together with Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Bayani Fernando.

Fernando has been very vocal against the idea of allowing party outsiders to join the selection process, saying that if the party would be strict in choosing its standard-bearer he should be the one to get the blessing because he is the only qualified party member who is seeking the presidential post.

Teodoro was sworn in by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, the Lakas-Kampi president, in the presence of his mother, Merceditas, and wife, Tarlac Rep. Nikki Teodoro, at the jampacked party headquarters in Greenhills, San Juan City (Metro Manila).

Joining Ermita were House Speaker Prospero Nograles and Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, the party’s vice chairmen; presidential political adviser Gabriel Claudio, secretary-general; Rep. Jose Solis Sr., deputy secretary-general; Cabinet officials; and a huge delegation of governors, mayors and congressmen.

“He [Teodoro] now enjoys the inside track, definitely. His official entry into the Lakas-Kampi membership gives him the political affinity necessary to win the party nomination,” Nograles said.

Lakas-Kampi CMD boasts of a merged national roster of more than five million card-carrying members and has the most organized grassroot machinery among all the political parties in the country.

If he wins the nomination, Teodoro will have the support of this formidable machine that has proved it could deliver the votes, having produced two presidents—former President Fidel Ramos and President Gloria Arroyo.

A former three-term congressman from Tarlac as a member of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, Teodoro has been described the “prized political jewel of the season.” He is living up to this image, having made quite a stir as well among local officials under the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines, or ULAP.

Mandaluyong City Mayor Benhur Abalos, president of ULAP and concurrent head of the League of Cities of the Philippines, said that Teodoro brings to Lakas-Kampi a “lot of charisma and integrity.”

Candidates

Vice President Noli de Castro, an independent, is also seen as possible contender for the presidency, although he has mostly kept mum on his political plans. He said, however, that if he runs in 2010, he would seek nothing less than the presidency.

De Castro said on Monday that he would announce his intention to run as well as his interest to join a party very soon.

While Gov. Ed Panlilio of Pampanga has declared his bid for the presidency, a high ranking Catholic Church official said that the priest-turned-politician broke his promise of quitting politics after his first term as governor.

San Fernando Auxiliary Bishop Pablo David said that Panlilio vowed before entering politics in 2007 that he would return to the priesthood after finishing his term as governor of Pampanga.

But Panlilio, who was suspended from his priestly duties for entering politics, said earlier that his decision to run for president in the 2010 polls is a “calling from God.”

He added that he is ready for any consequences, including dispensation from priesthood, for his decision to continue with his political career.

“He speaks of God’s will as if he’s the only one capable of discerning God’s will. If many in the community in his own superiors say otherwise, then we are praying to a different God,” David said in the news website of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

The Church’s Canon Law specifically prohibits the participation of the members of the clergy in state politics.

Another perceived presidential candidate is Sen. Loren Legarda, who has indicated her desire to tap Sen. Francis Escudero as her running-mate.

But that may not happen, according to Nograles. While it is a “good” ticket, he said that he got word that Escudero will not settle for less than the presidency.


The Source: The Manila Times