Estrada camp insists on ‘FPJ for 2004’

Talk about Fernando Poe Jr. running for president in 2004 just won’t die down.

Better known by his initials, "FPJ," the king of Philippine action movies celebrated his 62nd birthday with his best friend, former President Joseph Estrada, at Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City where Estrada is detained.

Also present were Poe’s wife, actress Susan Roces, and several showbiz personalities and Estrada’s key political allies such as film director Eddie Romero and Sen. Vicente Sotto III.

However, the celebration looked more like the start of an election campaign rather than a birthday party. A streamer bearing "Happy Birthday FPJ 2004" greeted well-wishers.

After lunch was served, Estrada, Poe and Sen. Panfilo Lacson – who was Estrada’s national police chief – excused themselves and had a closed-door meeting in the bedroom, according to Crispin Remulla, spokesman for Estrada’s Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP).

"I was told that the three of them had a closed-door meeting for more than 30 minutes inside President Estrada’s room," Remulla, who was not at the party, said in a PMP statement to the press.

While saying he was not at liberty to disclose what Estrada discussed with Poe and Lacson, Remulla said "some of them are related to 2004," referring to the national and local elections that year.

During the party, guests were surprised and delighted to see Poe’s birthday cake with "Fernando Poe Jr., sa 2004" written on it.

When egged by some of the guests that he run for the presidency "so you could help your friend Erap," Poe didn’t say yes. But he didn’t say "no, thanks" either as he did a few times in the past.

He replied that if he ever decides to seek public office "it is for the sake of my countrymen and not just for my friend," drawing cheers.

Asked about a possible Poe presidential campaign, Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. acknowledged in a radio interview that Poe might win an election because of his movie star popularity and clean track record.

De Venecia lost to Estrada in a multi-cornered presidential race in 1998 which the former film action star won by a landslide, thanks to the poor who idolized him.

De Venecia, however, quickly added that "FPJ is good but he and his family keep on saying that Poe is not interested in politics." The family of De Venecia’s wife owns Sampaguita Pictures, one of the country’s oldest moviemaking companies, and is close to the Poes.

If Poe finally does relent and runs for Malacañang, De Venecia warned he "needs to prepare to become the president of the Philippines."

He said "in order to become president, the candidate has to be knowledgeable about how to run the country, the economic and democratic policies and processes, among others."

Talk about Poe running for president first surfaced when he stood by his best friend’s side during Estrada’s oath-taking in 1998. Since then, Poe had repeatedly insisted he had no political ambitions.

As an actor in the 1960s up to the early 1980s, Estrada played tough guy roles who defended the oppressed which the poor – most of whom are obsessed with stardom – identified with.

He exploited the image to the hilt in running for public office and wooing votes from the poor, which consisted well over half of the country’s population of 80 million.

He first won as mayor of San Juan town in 1969, then for the Senate in the 1980s, then for vice president in 1992 and finally for the presidency.

Estrada’s successful run prompted several celebrities to try their hand at public office.

Despite his image as a drunk and a womanizer with low IQ, the former high school dropout won by a landslide in the 1998 presidential race.

Before finishing half of his six-year term, however, Estrada was ousted in January 2001 in a military-backed popular uprising following allegations that he took millions in bribes from illegal gambling rackets, among others.

He is currently on trial for plunder – an offense punishable with death – and other charges. — With reports from Eva de Leon, Jose Rodel Clapano