Again the underdog

10/26/2008

Former President Joseph Estrada’s biggest frustration as what he has said on different interviews made on him, is to complete an abbreviated commitment to improve the plight of the poor.

Erap, who is Estrada to most Filipinos, remains among, if not the most popular political figure in the country, despite his incarceration for six years on charges that the Arroyo administration labored to make these stick to him.

Estrada, in the end, was convicted on charges of insider-trading and of his benefiting from the illegal numbers game called jueteng, both under very weak and contradictory pieces of evidence but still rammed through by the Sandiganbayan for the reason that acquitting him would present Gloria a complicated political dilemma since she grabbed power in 2001 on charges that Estrada was not fit for the presidency.

To this day, Gloria is still doing all she can to get that legitimacy which she, however, knows she can never have, even if the Supreme Court that was headed by one of her coup conspirators , Chief Justice Hilario Davide, came up with that convoluted “constructive resignation” doctrine that will always stain that court and its justices.

After being convicted, it was the Arroyo administration that also seemed too eager to have Estrada pardoned which evidently was its plan all along in convicting Estrada while preventing a build up of public unrest.

But that absolute pardon was also an acknowledgment on Gloria’s part that there had been a gross miscarriage of justice in the Sandiganbayan justices’ conviction of Estrada.

And well did Gloria know it, since it was she who had made it clear to the public and the Sandiganbayan justices that she wanted Estrada convicted.

Estrada walked out a free man exactly year ago yesterday.

Gloria gave Erap full pardon but Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said the clemency was given to him on the condition that he will no longer seek public office, a presumption that was not in any way contained in the dispositive portion of the pardon. Even Gonzalez, a lawyer, knows that whereases do not bind that which is stated in the dispositive portion.

After his release, Erap became the most sought-after political figure, a fact that give Gloria and other presidential wannabes a chill in their spines.

The confidence that Filipinos bestow on Estrada rises in parallel to reports about the unprecedented level of corruption and mismanagement in government.

Estrada said he is considering the option of either supporting one candidate for a unified opposition but if this does not fly, he might don the gloves himself and slug it out for the presidency in 2010.

Estrada said his support for a candidate in the 2010 elections also constitutes a way to fulfill his uncompleted mission for the poor.

With the way some presidential timbers identified with the opposition have started to get at each others’ throats, the likelihood of Estrada making a run for the presidency becomes more possible.

Legal challenges will, however, definitely meet an Estrada announcement of a bid for the presidency. This early, Gloria’s legal hounds have stated that an Estrada candidacy as president will violate the Constitution — as if Gloria has not violated the Charter in assuming the presidency by grabbing power from Estrada in 2001.

Also, it would be hard for Gloria’s legal geniuses to justify the unconstitutionality of an Estrada run after Gloria sought the presidency again in 2004 after the 2001 power grab.

What’s sauce for the goose should also be sauce for the gander.

Still, the constitutional challenge would be applied on Erap for sure if ever he does carry the flag of the opposition in 2010.

By the time that the campaign period for the 2010 elections starts, however, all the Supreme Court justices except for Chief Justice Reynato Puno would all be Gloria appointees.

With such a configuration, it would be easier to expect Gloria to be allowed to seek another six-year term than for Erap to hurdle legal questions over a presidential bid.

The best compromise, since it would be futile to talk Constitution under Gloria, would be to allow both Gloria and Erap to make another go at the presidency.

A Gloria-Erap showdown would be something for the books.

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