(Comelec)’s second division junked the three disqualification cases against the former President, on grounds that he is not the incumbent president seeking reelection, and the belief that the decision on who is to be elected president is best left to the sovereign people.
From the start, the anti-Erap media and the anti-Erap elite groups tried to demolish his candidacy by stressing that Estrada would be disqualified, giving out all arguments about his being banned from running for the same seat, in a bid to weaken his candidacy.
Even when Estrada officially announced his candidacy and that of his vice president and senatorial bets in Tondo, the anti-Erap media, even as they covered the proclamation rally, ensured that their guest panelists would all be anti-Erap individuals. Thus, as there was live video coverage in a box on the TV screen, there were the anchors and the panelists all saying that Erap will be disqualified anyway since he is constitutionally banned from running for the top post again.
Then too, came the day Estrada filed his certificate of candidacy at the Comelec, and again the same mode was adopted by the anti-Erap TV network. There again went the guest invited to comment, but one who was also clearly anti-Erap, saying that Estrada has no chance of making it to the race since he faces sure disqualification.
Arguments on whether he could run or not went on, with the added spiel that Estrada was going to withdraw in favor of LP bet Noynoy Aquino, simultaneously with the spread of rumor by the Villar camp that Estrada will be withdrawing from the race and be endorsing Villar.
There were reports from the field that the Villar camp even had a tabloid issue saying that Erap was ready to withdraw in favor of Villar.
All that didn’t even stop as the same anti-Erap groups and media, in reporting survey ratings, dropped Estrada altogether, making it appear that the race was just between Aquino and Villar.
Not surprisingly either, they came up with “analyses” of Estrada losing his touch with the masses and was being rejected by his constituents.
At every chance they got, they always excluded him in reports such as the trips of presidential bets to commiserate with the evacuees from the Mayon ash falls, even when he also went to these places.
Today, the issue on the disqualification of Estrada’s presidential bid should be a dead issue, but that hasn’t stopped the same anti-Erap groups from saying that the Comelec’s decision may still be overturned, despite the fact that the Comelec spokesman said that while a motion for reconsideration is allowed, a strong legal and constitutional argument has to be made for the commission to reverse its decision. But what could be a strong argument against the fact that it is the sovereign people, and not the unelected, who should decide whom they want to elect as president?
The Comelec’s promulgation junking the three disqualification cases also came on the exact date that the anti-Erap civil society staged a coup d’etat against Estrada, exactly nine years ago.
The junking of the disqualification cases against Estrada is not just a triumph of the former President. It is the triumph of the Filipino people, whose sovereign right to elect a president of their choice has been upheld.
There must be a moral lesson in all this, for the power-grabbing elite anti-Erap groups to learn.
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