MANILA – Ousted president Joseph Estrada on Monday formalized his plan to “recapture†Malacanang by filing his certificate of candidacy before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and join the presidential race in the May 2010 elections.
Also on Monday, Senator Manuel Villar, the standard bearer of the Nacionalista (Nationalist) Party, filed his candidacy before the Comelec national office at the historic district of Intramuros (Spanish walled city) in Manila.
Estrada and Villar were among the “big name†presidential aspirants who apparently timed the filing of their candidacies on a historical day. Monday is a nationwide public holiday in observance of Bonifacio Day or National Heroes Day.
The day has been proclaimed a national holiday in honor the country’s heroes, particularly Andres Bonifacio, who founded a revolutionary group that posed what is considered the first serious threat against 400 years of Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines.
Estrada and Villar were preceded by Senator Benigno “Noynoy†Aquino 3rd, the official presidential candidate of the Liberal Party and the only son of the late global democracy icon president Corazon Aquino, who went to the Comelec to file his candidacy on Saturday.
Not surprisingly, the Estrada and Villar camps tried to outdo each other in terms of “drama†by bringing thousands of their supporters to accompany them to the Comelec.
But apparently, all this went for naught because their preparations were overshadowed by the announcement on Monday of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that she would run for a seat in Congress to represent the second legislative district of her home province of Pampanga in Central Luzon in next year’s polls.
In the case of Estrada, for instance, he personally drove a jeepney to the Comelec to file his candidacy as the standard bearer of the “Puwersa ng Masa†(Party of the Masses) from the Bonifacio monument near the Manila city hall, less than a kilometer away, where held a short programme.
Accompanying Estrada aboard the jeep was his running mate, outgoing Mayor Jejomar Binay of suburban Makati City, Metro Manila, and some of their senatorial candidates.
In his earlier speeches, Estrada vowed to recapture Malacanang for the sake of the poor Filipinos after his “illegal†ouster by the Edsa 2 People Power Revolution in January 2001 for alleged unabated massive graft and corruption.
In 2007, Estrada was convicted of plunder by the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court and sentenced to life imprisonment as well as the forfeiture of his unexplained wealth in favor of the government.
But before he could serve even one day in jail, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo granted Estrada full and absolute pardon which restored his civil rights guaranteed by the Constitution, including the right to vote.
In this light, legal experts raised the question of whether Estrada could still run for president because he already served in Malacanang. But Estrada maintained he has a retained a team of lawyers to answer such legal question which is expected to be raised before the Comelec and eventually before the Supreme Court.
For his part, Villar promised to mount a revolution for the poor if elected as president, citing his background of coming from an impoverished family but who succeeded to become a billionaire and acknowledged as the richest member of the Philippine Congress.
Villar and his running mate, Senator Loren Legarda, led their followers in marching to the Comelec, wearing white pants and orange shirts, which have become the color of their campaign.
But lately, Villar has been under fire from human rights advocates for forging a political alliance with the “Kilusang Bagong Lipunan†(KBL or New Society Movement), founded by the late ousted strongman Ferdinand Marcos.
The alliance was formalized when Villar proclaimed Congressman Ferdinand Marcos Junior of Ilocos Norte province in Northern Luzon, the only son and namesake of the late dictator, as one of his party’s senatorial candidates.
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