Can Erap run?

Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile describes former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada as “Pied Piper” for attracting followers wherever he goes. He and other Erap supporters believe nothing can stop him from running for president in the 2010 elections.

He is believed to run for president anew in the event the opposition fails to unite and field a single candidate against the administration’s standard-bearer.

Once he files his candidacy, however, we can be sure petitions will be filed in the Supreme Court questioning the legality of his running, considering that he had been convicted for plunder. The Constitution is clear about not allowing persons who had been convicted to run for public office.

But can he?

That is the question.

Some legal luminaries have the answer: yes, Erap can. Run for president in 2010. Among them is former University of the Philippines College of Law Dean Pacifico Agabin.

And bar topnotcher Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III.

Both Agabin and Pimentel say that the constitutional prohibition against a president seeking re-election, under section 4, Article 7, applies only to an incumbent president, in this case, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Agabin pointed out in a recent forum in San Juan that an incumbent president is barred by the 1987 Constitution from re-election as a safeguard against an incumbent using the resources of his or her office to perpetuate himself or herself in power.

This is affirmed by Pimentel when he said that the very use of the word “reelection” in paragraph 1 of the said provision leaves no doubt that the prohibition applies only to an incumbent president and not to past Philippine presidents. He says, “Re-election means running again for the position one is holding. When Estrada runs again for president in May 2010, he would not be incumbent President Estrada, but plain citizen Estrada.”

Senate President Enrile himself stresses that “the reality is that Erap is not the president anymore when he files his certificate of candidacy” this November, if indeed, Estrada is inclined to do so. 

Estrada has consistently maintained his innocence concerning his conviction for plunder. His advisers tell him that the late former President Corazon Aquino’s apologizing to him for helping oust him from Malacañang strengthened his case.

On the loss of a person’s right to seek public office after conviction of certain criminal offenses, Pimentel said that Estrada’s right to vote and to be voted had been fully restored by the executive amnesty that had been given him last year. At this, anti-Estrada forces cluck their tongues: President Arroyo should never have granted him amnesty.

Pimentel said that while the amnesty had said that Estrada had pledged not to seek public office anymore, “it did not make not running for office by Estrada a precondition to the granting of the pardon.”

Pimentel said that “the constitutional provision under discussion, in fact, would hold as very valid any bid by Estrada to run for president anew in 2010.” He was referring to the clause that said that even an incumbent president may run for reelection if he or she had failed to serve as president for more than four years.

This very clause, according to Pimentel, was the basis of President Arroyo’s running in 2004, having served only for over three years after wresting power from Estrada. Estrada had only served as president for two-and-a-half years, so that clause, if the entire constitutional provision is to be interpreted as applicable to all Philippine presidents, and not just to the incumbent, would make legally tenable Estrada’s running anew.”

The deadline for filing certificates of candidacy is just around the corner. We wait with bated breath for what happens: whether Erap is running, and how the Supreme Court will act on his candidacy.

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New Day Publishers (trade name of Christian Literature Society of the Philippines, Inc.) is now 40 years old, and to celebrate its ruby anniversary, it launched the other day a campaign of soliciting books from publishers to be donated to libraries or reading centers of churches and towns in rural areas, starting with what have been identified by the Philippine National Statistics Coordination Board as the poorest provinces in the country. This project is called Aklat-Pinoy Para Sa Mga Kabataang Pinoy (Philippine Books for Rural Libraries Campaign).

 Bezalie Bautista Uc-Kung, New Day Publishers executive director, relates that New Day was established in 1969 “at a time when there was hardly any book available locally about the Philippines and/or books written by Filipinos. It took upon itself, therefore, the mission to fill this dearth, and to provide a venue for local writers to publish their own works. Thus, New Day Publishers pioneered Filipiniana publishing in the Philippines at a time when it was not a popular or financially viable activity. Many years later, more local publishing houses would take the same road, thus, contributing to the growth of Philippine scholarship and craftsmanship. New Day Publishers would like to believe that the work it has started some 40 years ago has been an impetus for such a phenomenon, an affirmation of the vision and mission of its founders.”

New Day, however notes that there continues to be areas in the Philippines, particularly in the countryside, where Philippine books are absent or rare. “While there have been international organizations whose mission was to provide books to Filipino readers, donated books are foreign or imported. New Day Publishers believes that for Filipino readers to develop their Filipino consciousness and identity, they have to get hold and read stories, poems, novels, histories, plays, biographies, essays, etc., about the Philippines and/or written by Filipino writers.

You may contact New Day Publishers at (632) 9288046, (632) 9275982, fax (632) 9246544 or the executive director’s office at [email protected].

New Day titles that can be purchased at New Day offices (11 Lands Street, VASRA, Quezon City), are classified into novels, history, biographies, textbooks, social science, plays, poetry and essays. Authors include Edith Tiempo, Bienvenido Santos, William Henry Scott, Alfredo Salanga, Lewis Gleek Jr., Crispin Maslog, Wilfredo Guerrero, Severino Montano, Mig Alvarez Enriquez, Mauro Avena, Mara Llanot, Simeon Dumdum, Gracianus Reyes, Miriam Defensor Santiago, Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, Miguel Bernard, and this columnist.

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My e-mail: [email protected]