Repent, PPC bets tell Estrada

Give up the women and repent.

Ousted President Joseph Estrada was urged yesterday to use the Holy Week break for soul-searching and penance.

"It’s time for Estrada to repent and be remorseful. He should adhere to Christian teaching so he would have time to do some soul-searching," said Rep. Ernesto Herrera (Lakas, Bohol).

Estrada’s lawyer, on the other hand, likened his client’s situation to that of Jesus Christ who was convicted by the mob.

"I do not claim any similarity between our Lord and my client. What I do decry is the seeming recurrent lust for blood, for a new kind of crucifixion," said Raymond Fortun.

Herrera said the disgraced president should ask for God’s forgiveness "for the sins he has committed."

After repenting and seeking forgiveness, Estrada should spend his remaining days living a moral life, Herrera said.

"He can start by giving up his girlfriends," Herrera added.

Fortun, a Mt. Banahaw devotee, added that since the time of Christ, civil society has set rules to ensure that no person may again suffer for a crime or crimes he did not commit and for which he has been falsely charged.

Former Speaker Manuel Villar Jr., for his part, said Estrada can take advantage of the Lenten season "by coming to terms with himself and reality."

Villar said the ousted president continues to deny that he did no wrong during his incumbency despite mounting evidence of plunder, corruption and other acts of wrongdoing.

From various testimonies and bank records, it would show that corruption took place at the highest office of the land in the previous administration, he said.

And yet, what Estrada keeps insisting is that he stole no public funds and did not demand or extort any money from anyone, he added.

Villar and Herrera are senatorial candidates of the ruling People Power Coalition (PPC).

It was under Villar’s leadership that the House of Representatives made history when it impeached Estrada last Nov. 13.

Herrera was one of the complainants in the impeachment petition against the former president.

Another PPC senatorial bet, former Internal Revenue Commissioner Liwayway Vinzons Chato, said the former president should blame himself and not his political enemies for his ouster.

The Holy Week is the time for Estrada to ask himself why he was removed from office after only two and a half years, she said.

Meanwhile, the PPC announced that a recent mock election conducted among participants of a Youth for Christ convention in Cebu City resulted in a 13-0 sweep by the ruling coalition.

It said Villar led the winning circle with 89 percent of the votes, followed by Joker Arroyo, 88 percent; Franklin Drilon, 87 percent; Sergio Osmeña, 86 percent; Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan, 85 percent; Juan Flavier, 85 percent;

Ralph Recto, 81 percent; Ramon Magsaysay Jr., 80 percent; Solita "Winnie" Monsod, 78 percent; Chato 77 percent; and Wigberto Tañada and Roberto Pagdanganan, who both had 75 percent of the votes.

The PPC said former broadcaster Noli de Castro and former Press Secretary Ricardo Puno Jr. were in the 14th and 15th slots. – With Jose Rodel Clapano