Erap holds no grudge vs Joson for backing GMA

CABANATUAN CITY — Detained former President Joseph Estrada holds no grudge against re-electionist Nueva Ecija Gov. Tomas Joson III despite the latter’s decision to support President Arroyo instead of his bosom buddy, movie actor Fernando Poe Jr.

The governor broke off from the Joson family’s long tradition of supporting the opposition by endorsing the candidacy of Mrs. Arroyo.

"Well, everybody is entitled to support anybody of his choice but our father does not hold any grudge against Gov. Joson. Mahal pa rin namin siya (We still love him)," former San Juan Mayor Jinggoy Estrada said in an interview with The STAR during the campaign sortie of the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) in the province the other day.

Jinggoy, a KNP senatorial candidate, said Poe will win in Nueva Ecija "because of Erap."

Political observers here believe that Estrada was hurting over Joson’s defection to Mrs. Arroyo’s camp in the same way he felt when Pampanga Gov. Lito Lapid abandoned him and transferred to the camp of former President Fidel Ramos in 1992.

So upset was Estrada then that when he became president, he turned away when Lapid was about to kiss his hand during a visit in lahar-ravaged Pampanga.

Estrada and Joson have long been allies since the former was still a senator. Through Joson’s strong leadership, Estrada was the top vote-getter in the province in the senatorial, vice presidential and presidential polls in 1988, 1992 and 1998, respectively.

When Estrada became president in 1998, Joson and his younger brother, Quezon Mayor Mariano Cristino, who was then eyeing the vice governorship, were released from detention at Camp Crame where they had been languishing since 1995 for the murder of a political rival.

Their release from detention and the designation of former governor Eduardo Nonato Joson as administrator of the National Food Authority (NFA) were seen as Estrada’s way of paying his political debts to the political clan.

Tomas III, for his part, lent moral support to Estrada in his remaining days in Malacanang even when Eduardo Joson resigned from his NFA post.

Tomas III’s defection to Mrs. Arroyo, through the alliance between his Bagong Lakas ng Nueva Ecija (Balane) and the Lakas-CMD (Christian-Muslim Democrats), came as a shock to Estrada diehards in the province.

Rep. Didagen Dilangalen, another KNP senatorial candidate, said he stuck it out with Estrada even when his fellow allies had deserted the former president.

"I was the only one who stuck out my neck for Erap," he told the crowd.

Asked to comment on Joson’s shift of loyalty to Mrs. Arroyo, Dilangalen said the governor is entitled to his own opinion.