Erap plays coy on decision to run for Manila mayor

MANILA, Philippines - Former President Joseph Estrada said yesterday he will announce his final decision on May 12 whether or not to run for Manila mayor.

“It will be nine days more of sleep. You will known by then if I will push through or (Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno) will be the mayor. It is not easy to beat our combination,” he said in a speech during the oath-taking of Moreno, former senator Jose Miguel Zubiri and 28 Manila councilors as new members of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP).

Without naming incumbent Mayor Alfredo Lim, Estrada said should he decide to run, he will clean up Manila not through “police mentality” but through a “complete urban renewal.”

He described Manila as “wasted,” adding that while he is not “generalizing all the police, but it’s fortunate that I’m not utak-pulis (police mentality). Shoot-to-kill is no longer in. What is needed is complete urban renewal.”

Estrada said he will have to consult PMP officials as well as Vice President Jejomar Binay and his party, the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) “because I have to join our senatorial candidates for their campaign all over the country.”

Meanwhile, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile aired his support for Estrada’s plan to run for Manila mayor, saying it would be interesting to have him challenging Lim for one of the most important positions in government.

“Where Manila goes the nation normally follows. Manila, after all, is the oldest city in the country and the temper of Manila will always determine the temper of the national political positions,” he said.

Enrile said Lim – a former senator -–should take Estrada’s possible entry in the mayoral race in a positive light.

“Fred Lim is a very strong politician. There has to be a strong candidate who will go up against him so that the residents of Manila would have a choice,” he said. “If I were Fred Lim, I would be honored to have as my opponent a former president of the Philippines.” – Jose Rodel Clapano, Marvin Sy