80,000 SIGNATURES:
'ERAP IN 2010'
DRIVE KICKS OFF
[PHOTO
AT LEFT - Former President Joseph Estrada opens the party caucus of the Pwersa
ng Masang Pilipino at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan yesterday. - Photo
By BOY SANTOS]
MANILA, APRIL 18, 2008 (STAR) By Jose Rodel Clapano And Non Alquitran - More than 80,000 signatures were presented to ousted President Joseph Estrada yesterday to convince him that people wanted him to run in the 2010 presidential elections.
The notebook containing 80,250 signatures from Pasig was given to Estrada during a caucus of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan as a gift for his 71st birthday today.
Wainwright Rivera, PMP-NCR director, who handed Estrada the signatures, said they plan to gather at least six million signatures nationwide within six months to persuade Estrada to run.
“We believe that among those people who have expressed their intention to seek the presidency in 2010, only President Estrada has the sincere mind to prioritize the poor masses in our country,” he said.
Rivera said Estrada is the only solution to the present problems besetting the country brought about by high-level corruption in government.
“With the hopelessness and desperation that is happening in our country right now, only President Estrada showed the sincerity to fight hunger and poverty,” he said.
“It has been his priority program to eradicate poverty and hunger in our country through his Revolution Kontra sa Gutom at Kahirapan, which we doubly need given the failures of the present administration to address these problems.”
Meanwhile, San Juan Mayor JV Ejercito said his family would be happy if his father will not run in 2010.
“President Estrada has reiterated that he might just be the last option of the opposition,” he said.
“In the meantime, his top priority is to unite the opposition and for the opposition to have a common candidate for president in 2010.
“If he will be given a chance, even if he is not in Malacañang he can still help the poor Filipinos.”
Ejercito said his father felt the trauma of having to leave Malacañang against his will in 2001.
“We (Ejercito family) are very, very happy that he has regained his freedom already,” he said.
“The people’s continuous support and call for him to run again in 2010 is a vindication in itself for my father.
“It is gladdening that he was convicted by the Palace, but he was vindicated by the people.” However, Ejercito said his father might not be able to turn his back on the people’s call for him to run in 2010.
“In his visits in various provinces in the country, the people are always according him with warm welcome,” he said.
“We are very glad that although he was jailed and convicted, they continue to support him.”
Best birthday gift
Estrada said the PMP’s signature campaign is the best gift that he received for his 71st birthday.
“I take this opportunity to acknowledge and extend my thanks to you for the signature campaign you have launched among our people,” he said.
“To me, this is our people’s expression of their continuing support to me. This would be the best birthday gift I can have from them.”
On the other hand, Estrada said he had learned to accept that his conviction in the plunder case and his incarceration for six years and six months has made him the nation’s No. 1 ex-convict.
“When I was president of the Republic of the Philippines, I was considered the No. 1 citizen,” he said.
“Today, however, I consider myself the No. 1 ex-convict. But it doesn’t matter if I am now the No. 1 ex-convict in the country as long as I am No. 1 in the hearts and feelings of our countrymen.
“I am happy to be an ex-convict who is close to our people than be a president who is isolated in Malacañang by container vans, electrified fences and barbed wire. Let them have Malacañang and I will stay here with the people.”
However, Estrada said he has no plans to run for president in 2010.
“I’m happy for their continuous support for me,” he said.
“I’m happy that I’m free now. As I have said, the Supreme Court’s decision to remove me as president is unique because they based it on their invented term ‘constructive resignation,’ which cannot even be found in the Constitution.
“Whenever people ask me if I will still run in 2010, I tell them that I will cross the bridge when I get there. The problem is the bridge is also under construction.”
Estrada said he has to consult his family, members of the PMP and his political allies before he could decide whether he would run in 2010.
“As of now, I really don’t have any intention of running because what I want is to unite the opposition,” he said.
“There will only be one common candidate. Well, we have Senators Loren Legarda, Manuel Villar, Mar Roxas, Francis Escudero and Panfilo Lacson. They are all capable, and I hope they will all agree. If the survey shows this is the strongest presidential candidate, then he or she will be the one that I will support.”
Estrada said the opposition must learn its lesson from the 2004 presidential elections, where more than one opposition candidate ran for president.
“The opposition lost because there are so many candidates and it’s easier to cheat the opposition if we have more candidates,” he said.
Erap’s birthday wish
Estrada said his birthday wish is for the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision and disallow Commission on Higher Education chairman Romulo Neri from invoking executive privilege in the Senate’s investigation on the national broadband network deal with Chinese firm ZTE Corp.
“One of my birthday wishes is for the Supreme Court to reconsider their decision on Neri’s case to finally put an end to all these and let the truth come out.”
On the other hand, former senator Luisa Ejercito said she wishes that Estrada will have good health in the coming years.
“The only thing left for me to wish for is his good health so that we may have many more years together as a family,” she said.
“I cannot wish for anything more. He has regained his freedom. We have been showed love not only by members of our family, but also by millions of Filipinos who continue to show us their undying support.”
Estrada will distribute rice in Metro Manila’s poor districts tomorrow in celebration of his 71st birthday.
“My wish is for the rice crisis to end soonest,” he said.
Estrada urged the government to immediately address the rice crisis.
“They are the ones who created it,” he said.
Estrada announced his birthday plans yesterday during a convention of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino-National Capital Region at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan.
Estrada, PMP founding chairman, said he pities the Filipino people particularly the masses, his supporters, who are suffering from the rice crisis.
“You ask the administration how (to solve the crisis),” he told reporters.
Erap will win – Lim
Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim said yesterday Estrada will win if he runs in the 2010 presidential elections based on the continuing warm welcome and support he receives from people nationwide.
Speaking on the eve of Estrada’s birthday, Lim said Estrada will distribute 5,000 bags of basic commodities in Tondo, Manila today.
Twenty doctors, nurses and dentists will take part in the medical mission of Dr. Estrada today, he added.
Lim thanked Estrada for having instituted the observance of Chinese-Filipino Freedom Fighter Day when he was president.
“They deserve our accolade and gratitude because they have written our history with their blood and have sent a message to us to love our country above all,” he said.
Chinese-Filipino Freedom Fighter Day commemorates the sacrifices of Chinese-Filipino guerrillas and soldiers who fought in World War II, he added. — with Sandy Araneta