‘Erap can’t run for president’

MANILA, Philippines - The Constitution bars Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada from seeking the presidency again, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said yesterday.

Macalintal issued the statement amid reports that Estrada, who was ousted as president in 2010, would seek the presidency in 2016 if neither Vice President Jejomar Binay nor Sen. Grace Poe would run.

Estrada, who was allowed by the Commission on Elections to run for president in 2010, insisted yesterday that the Constitution prohibited merely consecutive re-election for the nation’s highest office.

He placed second to President Aquino in the 2010 race.

The issue remains unresolved because the Supreme Court refused to rule on a petition seeking Estrada’s disqualification as presidential candidate, saying it had become moot and academic.

Macalintal lamented yesterday the SC’s failure to resolve an important constitutional question.

Bar plunder convicts from public office

In a related development, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago has filed a bill seeking perpetual disqualification for a public servant convicted of plunder.

Santiago filed Senate Resolution 2568 in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that upheld the legality of Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada’s election into office following the unconditional pardon granted to him by former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“No pardon may extinguish the accessory penalty of perpetual absolute disqualification,” she said.

Santiago said amendments to the plunder law would “make it impossible for one who has been convicted of plunder to hold public office.”

“Public office is not the venue to test the limits of one’s ability to turn from his evil ways,” she said.

With some legal maneuverings, Santiago noted that it is possible for one who has been convicted of a heinous crime to run and be reelected into office.

Since plunder is about accumulation of ill-gotten wealth amounting to P50 million, Santiago said the theft of such amount from the nation is “unforgivably criminal.”

“No person who is capable of such an act has a place in public office,” she said.

Santiago wants to amend Republic Act 7080 or the plunder law, specifically Section 5 on suspension and loss of benefits.

“Any public officer against whom any criminal prosecution under a valid information under this act, whatever stage of execution and mode of participation, is pending in court, shall be suspended from office,” Section 5 read.

Under Santiago’s measure, a public servant convicted of plunder will lose all retirement or gratuity benefits and be barred from running for office.

She said an acquittal allows entitlement to reinstatement and to the salaries and other benefits which the public officer failed to receive during suspension.