The 2010 Presidential election is fast approaching. The presidential wannabes, showing their lack of delicadeza, have started their TV ad campaign as early as January this year. While there is no law prohibiting them from doing so, however delicadeza dictates that they should have at least waited for the campaign period to begin before brandishing their faces on TV. The nerve! I couldn’t bear seeing their faces every time I turned on the monitor - Villar, Roxas and Binay. They’re all alike no matter how many times they’d deny it - trapos, trapos and trapos forever. Probably, if you will insist that they’re different, I’d say that the old generation politicians were comparable to Pentium 1 and the current ones are Pentium II but still not core-duo. See the point? Updated version but still outdated thus must be junked. These kind of candidates are the ones that people should really shun away from like the way we’ve been trying to prevent and protect ourselves from A-H1N1 virus. They’re contagious.
Quite honestly, I’m almost oblivious of what’s going on not because I don’t care but It’s actually more of a choice since I am sensing that our version of politics has become routinary, therefore boring, but also toxic. You’ll feel so dried up to the bone by just looking at them ranting and mudslinging. Political bickerings have become part of our daily course despite the call for unity not just by the President, who simply can’t convince them, but also by the Church, the Civil society and other cause-oriented groups. All the time, they’ll reason that the noise they’re making (as if I give a hoot) is for the people, for the truth and blah blah blah. Yeah right! These politicians will stop at nothing just to advance their hidden agenda even to the point of appearing alone in Senate investigations asking all sorts of questions just for media mileage. Wow! or should I say whew?! But guess what, despite all these exposures who is having a good laugh? The deposed president. And why? because he is leading the surveys with VP de Castro. Have we not had enough of him? When will this stupidity end?
There seems to be no noise about his impending come back. I wonder. But then again I realized - who would when all the noisy are on the same side of the fence. His possible candidacy will be the greatest insult to all of us who joined hands in EDSA, in Cebu and in some parts of the country just to kick him out of Malacañang due to corruption and incompetence. By merely entertaining the thought that he’s coming back makes me sick. The absence of discussion as to the question of whether or not he can run made me review my political law and the jurisprudence involving his ouster in 2001. Now the question, can he really run? With all my readings considered, the answer is NO.
The Supreme Court in the case of Estrada vs. Arroyo GR #146738 March 2, 2001 through the pen of now Chief Justice Puno said,
“The issue then is whether the petitioner resigned as President or should be considered resigned as of January 20, 2001 when respondent took her oath as the 14th President of the Republic. Resignation is not a high level abstraction. It is a factual question and its elements are beyond quibble: there must be an intent to resign and the intent must be coupled by acts of relinquishment. The validity of a resignation is not a governed by any formal requirement as to form. It can be oral. It can be written. It can be express. It can be implied. As long as the resignation is clear, it must be given legal effect.
In the cases at bar, the facts shows that petitioner did not write any formal letter of resignation before he evacuated Malacañang Palace in the afternoon of January 20, 2001 after the oath-taking of respondent Arroyo. Consequently, whether or not petitioner resigned has to be determined from his acts and omission before, during and after January 20, 2001 or by the totality of prior, contemporaneous and posterior facts and circumstantial evidence bearing a material relevance on the issue.
Using this totality test, we hold that petitioner resigned as President.”
And what does it mean when a president resigned from his post? The 1987 Consitution has a very explicit and unequivoval answer. Sec 4, of Art VII in part says,
“…The president shall NOT be eligible for re-election…Voluntary renunciation of the office for any length of time shall not be considered as an interruption in the continuity of the service for the full term for which he was elected.”
What can Estrada do now is hope and pray that the Consitution will be tinkered prior to the 2010 election because his future under the present [consitution] is nothing but a nightmare. The provision is very simple. It doesn’t need translation. You need not be a rocket scientist to understand what it provides but for emphasis I will say it again, He cannot run for President because:
1.) He resigned and;
2.) His resignation cannot be considered as an interruption of his full term.Meaning, even if he only served for less than 3 years, it’s considered full term.
Again, under the pain of redundancy, HE RESIGNED thus he can’t run for re-election. He’s considered to have served the full term. This is the opinion of the Supreme Court, the very court that will later sit as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, the body that settles presidential contests
