Erap may assume post sans SC halt order

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has effectively allowed former President Joseph Estrada to assume his new post as mayor of Manila.

This after the high court deferred ruling yesterday on a petition seeking Estrada’s disqualification from the mayoralty race last May 13 that he had won.

The justices of the high tribunal failed to rule on the petition filed by lawyer Alicia Risos-Vidal due to the intervention plea filed by losing re-electionist Mayor Alfredo Lim.

The SC admitted Lim’s motion and consolidated it with the petition of Vidal, who is reportedly his lawyer. The high court, however, ordered Estrada to answer the intervention plea within 10 days.

Without a halt order or unfavorable ruling from the SC, Estrada may assume the top city hall post on June 30 and start his three-year term.

In his intervention plea filed last June 7, Lim asked the high court to reverse an earlier decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) allowing Estrada to run for mayor despite his previous conviction for plunder.

Lim urged the SC to instead order the cancellation of Estrada’s certificate of candidacy and for the Comelec to convene as board of canvassers and proclaim him winner in the race.

Lim, however, did not seek issuance of temporary restraining order against Estrada’s assumption of office.

Estrada has been proclaimed winner in the mayoral contest by the poll body.

In the original petition filed before the polls, Vidal questioned the decision of the Comelec dismissing with finality her disqualification complaint against the former President.

The petitioner insisted that Estrada’s conviction for plunder and being sentenced to life imprisonment had rendered him disqualified to run for public office. 

She reiterated that the executive pardon granted to Estrada by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did not restore his right to seek or hold public office.

Estrada, in his comment, asked the high court to dismiss the petition and instead affirm the Comelec ruling.

His lawyers argued that the case should be dismissed as it is considered moot following his election and proclamation. 

They said reversing the Comelec ruling would effectively disenfranchise the mandate given to him by some 300,000 voters in the city.

The Comelec submitted to the SC its separate comment and justified its decision dismissing the disqualification petition of Vidal.

The poll body maintained its finding that Vidal’s issue was “glaringly similar or intertwined” with the disqualification cases filed against Estrada when he ran for president in 2010, which were resolved by the high court.

In an interview with The STAR, Estrada yesterday accused Lim of “double talk.”

He said the outgoing mayor is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease when he joined the disqualification case against him. – With Jose Rodel Clapano