Former President Joseph Estrada files Presidential candidacy
Former President Joseph Estrada is set to file his certificate of candidacy today.
According to an article from Malaya:
Estrada’s group and their supporters will hear mass at around 9 a.m. at the Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila in observance of Bonifacio Day.
Estrada will unveil the party’s platform while Binay will speak on good governance.
After the program, the party will march to the Comelec via Taft ave. and Intramuros.
As of last night, there are 51 candidates for president, four for vice president and 66 for senator.
Estrada’s Presidential candidacy, if he files as expected, will throw a serious challenge at what is generally held as the Constitutional ban on elected Presidents seeking a second term.
Lawyer and Presidential candidate Oliver Lozano has files a legal case against Estrada’s budding Presidential candidacy. Here’s an article from the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Oliver Lozano, 69, who claims he is also a “presidential aspirant,” asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to disqualify Estrada five days after the former President announced his political plan next year before 10,000 supporters at a rally in Tondo, Manila.
“The Constitution provides no presidential reelection. This is interpreted to mean that ex-President Estrada is not qualified to run for reelection to which he honestly disagrees,” Lozano said in his eight-page petition.
Comelec Chair Jose Melo has said that a challenge to Estrada’s reelection bid cannot be made until after he has filed a certificate of candidacy during the period prescribed by the poll body beginning Nov. 20.
Asked for comment on Monday, Melo said Lozano’s petition was “too early.”
“You only oppose if the man has filed his candidacy,” he said. “What if Erap (Estrada’s nickname) did not file it?”
Estrada’s spokesperson, Margaux Salcedo, said the petition was “so obviously premature that it almost seems as if Attorney Lozano is either making a mockery of the Comelec or deliberately making a laughingstock of himself to make headlines.”
But Lozano said Estrada’s proclamation on Wednesday that he was running again for president despite the absence of his formal candidacy, should give his petition a legal basis.
2 Responses to “Former President Joseph Estrada files Presidential candidacy”
[...] Estrada, who wasn’t able to finish his term, decided to run once more for office. He has now filed his candidacy for the May 2010 Presidential Elections although there have been several groups who contested this. [...]
[...] Estrada, who wasn’t able to finish his term, decided to run once more for office. He has now filed his candidacy for the May 2010 Presidential Elections although there have been several groups who contested this. [...]