Estrada’s unlucky portrait missing at Malacañang

Deposed President Joseph Estrada is not upset that his official portrait has been unceremoniously removed from its usual place at the Ceremonial Hall at Malacañang.

"The feng shui expert told me that picture was bad luck anyway," said Estrada, who is known for his inveterate gambling and punctilious attention to the charms of Lady Luck.

Estrada explains that the portrait may have been an omen of the misfortunes of his 31-month presidency.

The portrait shows a half-smiling Estrada standing behind an officious chair, both his hands resting on the backrest, and the presidential seal in the background.

"It shows that I was not sitting on my chair and it portrays that I was as if giving the seat away" said Estrada, who was ousted from the presidency by a military-backed civilian uprising on Jan. 20.

The former president has also been known to blame the bad luck of his administration on his 13th place in the roster of Philippine presidents.

He was also impeached by the House of Representatives on Nov. 13 on charges of bribery, graft, betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution.

Curiously, Estrada recently found some luck in the numbers 7 and 11 and won the first hand in his Supreme Court petition questioning the legitimacy of the Arroyo administration and invoking presidential immunity.

Estrada’s arguments in his two petitions cited the provisions of Article VII, Section 11 of the Constitution which provides for the process of presidential succession.

Ironically, the constitutional provisions were first taken up in public by former President Corazon Aquino, the country’s 11th president, when she first urged Estrada to resign from office.

But it may irritate Estrada to realize that his lawyer Rene Saguisag may have pushed Estrada’s luck too far when he asked Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. and Associate Justice Artemio Panganiban to inhibit themselves from hearing his case.

Saguisag had claimed that the two justices had pre-judged Estrada’s case by their previous actuations and, for propriety’s sake, the justices agreed to recuse themselves.

But guess how many justices will remain to judge Estrada’s case if two out of the 15-man Supreme Court inhibit themselves? — Marichu Villanueva, Delon Porcalla