Estrada gets to witness Loi, JV oath-taking, after all

Despite his hospital detention, deposed President Joseph Estrada was still able to witness a historic event in his family life yesterday when his wife and son took their oaths of office in his presence.

The disgraced leader, who is facing charges of plunder which is a capital offense, woke up early to witness the oath-taking of former First Lady Luisa "Loi" Ejercito as senator and his son Jose Victor "JV" Ejercito as mayor of San Juan, the town where he started his political career more than three decades ago.

Loi and JV took their respective oaths of office at the executive suite of the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) where Estrada is being detained while undergoing treatment.

Estrada and his other son, former San Juan Mayor Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada, have been in detention at the VMMC since May 12 after an anti-graft court ordered their arrest for allegedly plundering the nation of more than P

Sources said JV will again take his oath before his constituents at the San Juan town hall tomorrow, his first official day in office.

He has reportedly asked the Philippine National Police to allow him to take his oath at the presence of his father so they can be together "on this memorable day."

"He will be assuming a post that his father once occupied so he wanted him tobe there," said a friend of the new mayor. JV was born on the year Estrada won his first election as mayor in 1969, hence the name "Victor."

No member of the media was allowed inside the VMMC during the oath-taking, but sources said Loi and JV were successively sworn in by Court of Appeals Justice Andres Reyes Jr., whom Estrada appointed to the appellate court in 1999.

"This is history for the family. Reyes is the son of Justice Andres Reyes, the person who swore in then Mayor Estrada into office in 1969," the source noted.

Yesterday’s event was witnessed by JV’s mother Guia Gomez, comebacking San Juan Rep. Ronaldo Zamora Jr. and former Immigration Commissioner Rufus Rodriguez, who now acts as legal counsel to Estrada’s Puwera ng Masa party.

Meanwhile, newly elected Pasig City Mayor Soledad Eusebio and re-elected Vice Mayor Lorna Bernardo also took their oath of office yesterday along with 12 councilors of the city yesterday.

The oath was administered by Pasig Regional Trial Court Executive Judge Edwin Dillasor at the Pasig Sports Complex.

Eusebio succeeded her husband, Vicente, who has completed three terms as mayor of the city.

She vowed to give priority to housing and employment projects in uplifting the standard of living of his constituents.

She added that one of her priorities is to focus on the the creation of the Pasig Science High School and a school for special children.

"I plan to come up with productive programs for the youth so they won’t be hooked to vices and unlawful activities," she said.