Comelec junks DQ case vs Erap

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) dismissed yesterday a disqualification case against former President Joseph Estrada, clearing the way for his match with re-electionist Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim in the May 13 polls.

In a six-page resolution, the Comelec’s Second Division said petitioner Alicia Risos-Vidal’s contention that Estrada is not qualified to run for an elective post had already been settled when he was allowed to run for president in 2010.

Estrada went to the Comelec yesterday to personally get a copy of the ruling. He reiterated his belief that Lim was behind the disqualification case.

“It’s Dirty Harry, who else? It’s all dirty tricks. He would say he has nothing to do with this but Vidal is his lawyer,” he told reporters.

He urged Lim to let Manila voters judge them on election day.  “I pity him because he does not want the people to decide.”

According to Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes, Vidal can still appeal the resolution before the Comelec’s commissioners.

The ruling, authored by Commissioner Elias Yusoph, was anchored on the consolidated Comelec special action resolutions and a full-court resolution, which established that the executive clemency or pardon granted to him by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2007 had restored his right to seek or hold public office.

Vidal, who served as Lim’s lawyer in the electoral protest case filed against him by former Manila mayor Lito Atienza in 2010, had sought Estrada’s disqualification from this year’s mayoral race.

She claimed that Estrada’s conviction for plunder in 2007 rendered him disqualified to run for public office.