Erap: Enrile among top opposition candidates for senator in 2010

MANILA, Philippines - Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile is among the opposition’s top bets for senator in the 2010 national elections, according to former President Joseph Estrada.

In an interview over radio station dwIZ, Estrada said that aside from Enrile, the final but incomplete list of the opposition’s senatorial candidates includes Grace Poe-Llamanzares, daughter of Estrada’s late best friend Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ); Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez; former Senator Sergio Osmeña; former Makati congressman Agapito “Butz” Aquino; Gina de Venecia, wife of Pangasinan congressman and former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr.; and lawyer Adel Tamano.

“We are still studying the other personalities who will complete the list of the opposition’s senatorial candidates in 2010,” he said.

Meanwhile, Estrada insisted that he could run for president in the 2010 elections, citing a study conducted by two retired Supreme Court (SC) justices, three deans of colleges of law in the country and a Bar topnotcher.

He said the study noted that he is “not covered by the prohibition on reelection of president because number one, I was not able to finish my six-year term because I was removed unconstitutionally after more than two years in office and I am not a sitting president,”

Lawyer Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, a topnotcher in the 1990 Bar examination, said the constitutional provision against reelection of a president only applies to an incumbent or sitting president and not to a former president.

“If President Arroyo was allowed to run for president in 2004, she was incumbent president at that time, it is because she merely succeeded the Office of the President by virtue of a Supreme Court decision. Besides, by the time of the May 2004 election, Mrs. Arroyo had served as president for only three and a half years,” he said.

Estrada said the study of the respected legal luminaries also declared that the prohibition for reelection of presidents applied only to an incumbent president because it does not want a sitting president to use the government machinery during the elections.

He said he will definitely run for president in 2010 if the opposition does not unite behind a single presidential candidate.

“We must learn our lessons in the 2004 presidential elections where my friend, FPJ, lost because of massive cheating. Had then Senator (Panfilo) Lacson did not run for president, the opposition would have won in 2004. The opposition will be easily cheated if it will field many presidential candidates in 2010,” he said.

Aside from Estrada, other presidential hopefuls from the opposition are Lacson, Senators Manny Villar, Mar Roxas, Loren Legarda and Francis Escudero, and Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay.

Binay has consistently said that his presidential bid will depend on the decision of Estrada.

Estrada said he will declare whether to run for president in 2010 by July or August.      – With Perseus Echeminada