Lawyer insists Constitution does not bar Erap from running for president

MANILA, Philippines - A lawyer of former President Joseph Estrada insisted yesterday the Constitution does not bar his client from running in next year’s presidential elections.

Lawyer Pacifico Agabin, former University of the Philippines College of Law dean, said the petitions filed before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) seeking to disqualify Estrada should be dismissed since they are anchored on the premise that a former president is not qualified to run as president.

“The Constitution is absolutely plain and unambiguous in referring to who is barred from running,” he said.

“The phrase ‘the President’ as used in Article VIII Section 4 of the Constitution refers to no one but the incumbent, which President Estrada is not, and therefore there is no basis for these petitions seeking his disqualification.”

Agabin said the phrase “the President” is used 64 times in the Constitution, and in all these instances, refers only to the sitting president.

“Constitutional interpretation dictates that a word or phrase in one part of the Constitution is to receive the same interpretation used in any other part, unless clearly stated otherwise,” he said.

Agabin dismissed efforts by some quarters opposed to Estrada’s candidacy to treat the Constitution as if it were a lawyer’s contract, subject to interpretation solely by legal means.

“The Constitution is a layman’s document, and the laws it contains are not intended to befuddle or confuse those who, having voted for its ratification in 1987, adopted it as the supreme law of the land,” he said.

“The words ‘the President’ as used therein refer plainly and simply to the incumbent, and there is no need to refer to other outside sources in determining who it is that is referred to in this phrase,” he said.

Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed by the Vanguards of the Constitution of the Philippines, Inc. seeking to disqualify Estrada.

Estrada’s legal team expressed confidence that the other petitions seeking to disqualify Estrada will suffer the same fate. – Jose Rodel Clapano