Mayor Erap’s ‘last hurrah’

Former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada called up after it came out in the front page of The STAR last week he is the richest local chief executive of Metro Manila. This was based on the annual statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) required of all public officials and employees to submit to the Office of the Ombudsman every year.

Based on his 2013 SALN, Mayor Estrada declared he is worth P242.834 million, a big chunk of which included more than P151.442 million in cash or its equivalent. Calling from his City Hall office, Mayor Estrada wisecracked that his “net worth” in his SALN is more than what he is truly worth as an elected public official.

He was obviously hurting over the latest developments in the pending disqualification case against him before the Supreme Court (SC). Last April 22, the SC gave due course to the petitions seeking to disqualify the former president as incumbent mayor of Manila. The petitions against Estrada were filed by lawyer Alicia Risos Vidal and by former Manila mayor Alfredo S. Lim whom Estrada beat in last May 2013 elections.

Lim filed a separate petition to intervene in the case, arguing he would be the lawful successor as mayor of Manila, not incumbent Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, if Estrada is disqualified. Both petitions asked the SC to reverse a final ruling of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that declared Estrada qualified to run for mayor in Manila.

Now as mayor, Mr. Estrada reported in his SALN real properties worth P95.533 million, including his last acquisition of the P91.033-million house in Manila when he decided to run for mayor. He also listed in his SALN an orchard and residences in Iba, Zambales and in Pagsanjan, Laguna.

So it was not a surprise when Mayor Estrada flew all the way to Sta. Cruz, Laguna last Friday to help resolve a brewing situation at the provincial capitol. His nephew Gov. ER Ejercito, egged on by his loyal supporters, refused to vacate his office. This was after the Comelec upheld its verdict that convicted Gov. ER on his alleged “over-spending” offense during last year’s elections.

As the acknowledged patriarch of the Ejercito clan, Mayor Estrada prevailed upon his nephew to follow his example when he was faced with the same situation, not just once but twice in his life as a duly elected public official. Estrada recalled he sacrificed to step down to protect the people from unnecessary bloodshed during the two separate times he was unseated from public office.

The first time was when Estrada – as then San Juan mayor – along with other local executives all over the Philippines, were ordered to give way to officers-in-charge (OICs) appointed by the late President Corazon Aquino a few weeks after EDSA-1 in the February 1986 People Power Revolution. And the second time Estrada was ousted from office – again with Mrs. Aquino also involved – was while he was the sitting president during EDSA-2 in January 2001.

Thankfully, Mr. Estrada cited the late Mrs. Aquino would later make a public apology in his presence for having “erred” in helping to unseat him from Malacañang during EDSA-2.

Sadly being dragged into the Estrada-bashing in politics is a very apolitical person, Jackie Ejercito-Lopez. She is the daughter of the mayor with former first lady and ex-senator Dra. Loi Ejercito and sister of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada.

While both ex-Sen. Loi and brother Jinggoy were being dragged into the pork-barrel scam, there were vicious rumors romantically linking Jackie with Vice Mayor Moreno.

A tearful Jackie confided she is currently trying to address her own marital woes with estranged husband, Beaver, scion of the Lopez clan that owns and runs business empires like the TV network giant ABS-CBN. She got married to Beaver in 1999 while Mr. Estrada was still president. They have three sons, the youngest of whom is more than two years old.

Breaking her silence, Jackie deplored certain camps as behind these lies being spread against her and the vice mayor of Manila. Jackie though won’t name names but she noticed the nasty talk against her started after her troubled marriage with Beaver leaked out in rumor mills late last year.

The rumored romance with the Manila vice mayor capitalized after she and Moreno became friends after the latter defected and joined her father’s political camp as running mate in last year’s mayoral elections. Jackie actively joined the house-to-house campaign for the Estrada-Moreno team. She, in fact, is dubbed as the “palengke queen” because she went around the public markets during the campaign.

Although he was also once an actor, Vice Mayor Moreno is playing a true gentleman by not dignifying the showbiz rumors lately coming out in blind items in media. He is married to Diana Lyn Domagoso for the past 14 years. The couple has four sons and a daughter.

Moreno has only high respect for Mayor Estrada that he is ready to give up politics if ever, he says, the former president decides to run for another term at City Hall. But 77-year-old Estrada reiterated he is only good for one term and would gladly endorse Moreno to succeed him in the next Manila mayoral elections in 2016. Estrada said he is now preparing Moreno for the turnover of Manila to continue all the reforms that he has started.

For now, lawyers of Mayor Estrada are deep into legal battle to keep him in office at the Manila City Hall.

Quoting US Vice President Joseph Biden, Mayor Estrada cited: “Failure is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable. Kaya lalaban tayo!” He was supposedly addressing his embattled nephew ER whom he asked to temporarily step down as Laguna governor while waiting for the SC to rule on his status quo ante order petition.

Obviously, however, he, too, is in the same situation with his own disqualification case pending before the High Court.

Mayor Estrada, however, vows he would never allow himself to be unseated for the third time.

He based his confidence on the fact that three similar disqualification cases filed against him were previously dismissed one after the other. These were the same disqualification cases dismissed at the Manila regional trial court; at the Sandiganbayan; and the Comelec ruling that is now pending before the SC.

Mr. Estrada would not be denied his “last hurrah” as mayor of Manila.