Comelec asked to reconsider decision allowing Erap to run

MANILA, Philippines - Allowing former President Joseph Estrada to run again in the presidential elections is worse than a failure of elections, according to a lawyer.

Evillo Pormento accused the Commission on Elections (Comelec) second division of abandoning its responsibility when it left the decision on Estrada’s qualifications to the people on May 10.

“If the Comelec second division really believed that it is the better policy to leave the matter to the will of the people to choose the next president, why then has the Comelec been so aggressive about disqualifying nuisance candidates for president?” read Pormento’s petition.

Pormento said the Comelec “has washed its hands like the biblical Pontius Pilate” in leaving the matter of choosing the next president to the Filipino people.

“To allow respondent Estrada to be a candidate in the 2010 presidential election, there may be a scenario in this country that we will have an elected-disqualified President – a situation worse than the failure of elections,” he said.

Pormento said since Estrada became president in 1998 and was ousted in 2001, he could no longer run for public office again.

Estrada is covered by the provision in the 1987 Constitution that a president is not eligible for any reelection, he added.

The framers of the Constitution intended the perpetual ban on re-election to cover all former presidents, Pormento said.

Earlier, Pormento had asked the Comelec to disqualify Estrada from running for president again.

Last Wednesday, the poll body dismissed three separate petitions calling for the disqualification of Estrada.

In its ruling, the Comelec said the Filipino people would act as the final arbiter on whether they would have Estrada sit again as president.

“On political questions, this court may err but the sovereign people will not,” read the Comelec decision.

“To be sure, the Constitution did not grant to the unelected members of the court the right to elect in behalf of the people.”    – Mayen Jaymalin