Comelec vows to fast-track DQ case against Estrada

By Marie A. Surbano

12/07/2009

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has vowed to resolve immediately the disqualification case filed against former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada, the standard-bearer of the United Opposition-Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (UNO-PMP) in next year’s polls.

“Since Erap case was very important, it is certain that it would be resolved by the commission as soon as possible,” Comelec spokesman James Jimenez yesterday said.

He added the poll body was aware of whether or not Estrada could run again in the May 2010 elections.

The Comelec official said the commission needed to fast-track the case as it was expecting it to be challenged before the Supreme Court.

“We want to give the SC more time to tackle it…The sooner it is out of the Comelec’s hands, the sooner the SC will have time to resolve it,” Jimenez stressed.

Lawyer Evillo Pormento filed on Saturday a three-page petition seeking Estrada’s disqualification on the ground that it could

set a bad precedent in allowing a former president to run again.

He also asked Estrada to be declared as a nuisance candidate and be excluded from the official list of candidates to be pre-printed in the ballots.

“That the filing of respondent’s certificate of candidacy (CoC) as presidential candidate is in direct and clear violation of the 1987 Constitution, particularly Article VII, Section 4, which states: The president shall not be eligible for any re-election,” Pormento said.

“To allow respondent to run as presidential candidate in the coming 2010 presidential election and to admit his CoC will become a bad precedent because other former past presidents/s of this country would follow suit by also filing their CoC in future presidential election and it will also defeat the wisdom behind the creation of the aforementioned Constitution provision which prescribes as one full six-year term of the President of this Republic without the benefit of re-election,” he added.

Estrada’s camp has been saying only incumbent presidents were ineligible for re-election and that he was not able to complete his term as he was ousted in January 2001.

There are two disqualification case that are pending before the poll body, the case filed by Pormento and the petition filed earlier by lawyer Oliver Lozano, a known Marcos loyalist who is also running for president. PNA

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