Erap-Noynoy meeting set next week

MANILA, Philippines - Former President Joseph Estrada and Liberal Party standard bearer Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III are meeting next week to discuss the possible unification of the opposition behind a single presidential bet for the May 2010 general elections.  

Estrada believes the opposition must have a single candidate for next year’s polls to win against the administration candidate. On Wednesday, the administration coalition Lakas-Kampi-CMD picked Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro as its standard bearer.

“I have a scheduled meeting with Sen. Noynoy Aquino next week. I am still hopeful that we will be able to unite the opposition,” Estrada said without elaborating.

Estrada said earlier that he was hesitant to talk with Aquino and his camp, which is composed mostly of people from civil society that played key roles in the move to oust him through the EDSA II People Power in January 2001.

Makati Mayor and United Opposition (UNO) president Jejomar Binay has consistently been proposing the talks between Aquino and Estrada after the senator announced his plan to run for the presidency.

Binay initially wanted to run for president but dropped out of the race after Estrada announced his candidacy. He said he plans to run for vice president if Estrada invites him as his running mate; otherwise, he will return to private life.

Binay is a close friend of the Aquinos, being the first local official appointed by former President Corazon Aquino under the revolutionary government in 1986. He also defended the Aquino regime from several coup d’état attempts.

Under the Estrada administration, he was chair of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and remained allied with the deposed president even after his removal from power in 2001.

The PDP-Laban, which Binay heads as national president, is allied with Estrada’s Partido ng Masang Pilipino. 

Binay yesterday welcomed Estrada’s statement to sit down with Aquino.

“I am very happy that former president Estrada is willing to meet with Senator Aquino. It is a welcome development,” said Binay.

No date has yet been set for the meeting but Binay said the Estrada-Aquino talks “will be between friends.”

“The former president and Senator Aquino go way back. There will be no preconditions and no expectations for this meeting. It will be just two friends sitting down to talk,” he said.

Aside from Aquino, Estrada said he might also talk with other presidential candidates including Sen. Manuel Villar of the Nacionalista Party, and Senators Francis Escudero and Loren Legarda of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC).

Estrada said he is still “99.9” percent sure of running for the presidency in 2010 but needs the unification of the opposition to make a full commitment. 

The former president said his legal team led by former Supreme Court Chief Justice Andres Narvasa assured him that there is no hindrance to his political plans for next year’s elections.