MANILA: The Philippines’ elections agency on Tuesday allowed former leader Joseph “Erap” Estrada to run for president at next year’s polls, putting him a step closer to seeking a second term and join the race with seven other candidates.
A spokeswoman for the former president was elated by the elections commission’s decision, but the Supreme Court has yet to rule on whether Estrada is eligible to run again, given a constitutional ban on a president seeking a second term.
Estrada was ousted from office in 2001, later convicted of plunder and then pardoned by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
“This is the last performance of my life and I will not fail you,” Estrada said when he announced his decision to seek the presidency in late October.
Estrada, a former actor, remains popular especially among the poor, but investors were worried over his administration’s profligate public spending and stories of his midnight parties with gambling and drinking buddies.
About 50 million Filipinos are voting for a president, a vice president, nearly 300 seats in the two houses of Congress and more than 17,500 local positions in next May’s general elections.
“Out of 99 candidates, we have come up with the list,” Jose Melo, chairman of the Commission on Elections, told reporters, adding only eight candidates were allowed to contest the presidency.
Meanwhile, Arroyo defended her decision to declare martial law in southern Maguindanao province after a political massacre that left 57 people dead.
The nine days of martial law in Maguindanao province quelled a rebellion by a powerful Muslim clan that is accused of being behind the massacre, Arroyo said on Tuesday in her first public comments on her controversial decision.
“This action was consistent with my obligation to our nation, no one will ever be allowed to bring rebellion to this country, let alone murder and go free,” Arroyo said in a speech to teachers at the presidential palace. “Inaction would have had dire consequences, we would not let that stand. I make no apologies for acting where others feared to tread.”
Arroyo pointed out that during martial law in Maguindanao more than 600 suspects were arrested, including the Ampatuan clan’s leaders, while over 1,000 high-powered weapons and 500,000 rounds of ammunition were seized.
Arroyo said martial law stopped the Ampatuans from seriously destabilizing all of Mindanao, which makes up the southern third of the country “The nation faced a rebellion that could have ignited total chaos in Maguindanao and likely spread through Mindanao,” she said.
Arroyo also hit out at her political opponents, some of whom said she secretly intended to use martial law to prolong her six-year term beyond 2010. Arroyo accused them of grandstanding while she was fighting to regain control of Maguindanao.
The government has warned that Maguindanao remained extremely volatile even after the lifting of martial law, saying thousands of gunmen loyal to the Ampatuans remain on the loose. The army reported Tuesday that four people were kidnapped and unknown gunmen ambushed a military patrol in separate incidents in Maguindanao on Monday.
