Estrada asks SC to junk disqualification case

MANILA, Philippines -  Deposed President and Manila Mayor-elect Joseph Estrada has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to junk a petition seeking his disqualification from the May 13 polls.

Estrada said the high court should instead affirm an earlier decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that allowed him to run for mayor of the country’s capital and defeat outgoing Mayor Alfredo Lim.

His lawyers argued in the comment to the petition of lawyer Alicia Risos-Vidal earlier this week that the case should be dismissed as it is considered moot already following his election and proclamation.

They also stressed that the Comelec was bound by the SC’s 2010 ruling that allowed Estrada to run for president again.

The Comelec also submitted to the SC its separate comment and justified its ruling dismissing the disqualification petition of Vidal, reportedly a lawyer of Lim.

The poll body maintained its finding that Vidal’s issue was “glaringly similar or intertwined” with the disqualification cases filed against Estrada when he ran for president in 2010, which were already resolved by the high court.

It stressed that Estrada’s “right to seek public office has been effectively restored by the pardon vested upon him” by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Vidal, questioning the Comelec’s decision, insisted that Estrada’s conviction for plunder and being sentenced to life imprisonment had rendered him disqualified to run for public office, and the pardon did not restore his right to seek or hold public office.

The SC is allegedly set to disqualify Estrada in this new case, according to a rumor announced by ABS-CBN News anchor Karen Davila in her afternoon dzMM radio program last Wednesday. 

A member of the high court told The STAR that the justice in charge of the case has not even come up with a draft ruling as he has just received Estrada’s comment. 

In 2009, the SC dismissed a similar disqualification case against Estrada, saying the petition was premature since the Comelec did not rule on the matter then.