hi. in our media ethics and law class, a speech and an article was assigned as our final requirement. Bjorn wrote the article while I do the speech. Our topic is Joseph Ejercito Estrada's candidacy and the ethical issues. I got too passionate in my stance.
Plain Citizen Erap decides to become King again.
Jose Marcelo Ejercito. Actor. Politician. Maybe disgruntled old man. But he had a story and perhaps a mission that he could not fulfill unless he joins in the political arena.
This FAMAS hall of famer (for both production and acting) was never noticed as anything more than the black sheep of the family. When he dropped out of school to become an actor, his parents feared that he might shame the name Ejercito. So he adopted the name Joseph Ejercito Estrada.
As his popularity grew, the masses begin to regard him as the friend of the masses for he took on roles that featured and protected the masses. Erap, a nickname coined by his bestfriend Fernando Poe Jr., was taken from the word “pare”, a colloquial term for friend.
He later on became the mayor of San Juan, which became the bulwark of the family. He served the then municipality for 17 years, stopping only because Corazon Aquino ordered all officials suspected of malfeasance or anomalies to drop-out of office. He was among those that dropped-out.
Erap won a seat in Senate the following year under the grand alliance for democracy. In 1992, he ran for vice president with his running mate Eduardo Cojuangco Jr under the nacionalist people's commission. Erap won and served the country as vice president under Fidel V. Ramos, former Defense secretary.
In 1998, amidst the tremor of the asian financial crisis, Erap took on the reigns of presidency. He won by landslide with his reputation growing as the hero of the masses.
Yet, like all presidents, like all politicians, his term was rampaged by political unrest plus inevitable natural phenomena like el nino and la nina, mass power shortages and the second recession.
In 2000, Chavit Singson, said to be a close friend of Erap, revealed to the public that Erap received 400 million pesos as a pay-off from jueteng and 180 million pesos from the government price subsidy for the tobacco farmers' marketing cooperative.
The allegation caused an uproar in the government, which led to an impeachment trial. The trial revealed more. He was guilty of ammassing and accumulating a grand total of Five Hundred Forty Five Million Two Hundred Ninety One Thousand Pesos (P545,291,000.00) from receiving bimonthly collections from jueteng, with two hundred million deposited in the Erap Muslim Youth Foundation.
He was also guilty of two other “acts of ordering the GSIS and the SSS to purchase shares of stock of Belle Corporation and collecting or receiving commission from the sales of Belle Shares in the amount of One Hundred Eighty Nine Million Seven Hundred Thousand Pesos (P189,700,000.00) which was deposited in the Jose Velarde account,” who the thirteenth witness of the trial, Clarissa Ocampo, bank employee, confirmed as Joseph Ejercito Estrada.
The thirteenth president was ousted from office through the cinematic People Power two.
He was guilty of plunder and perjury. His punishment: Reclusion perpetua.
After six and a half years of imprisonment, the so-called gracious Vice president turned president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo offered him Executive Clemency, which he gladly accepted. He was restored his civil and political rights.
He promised not to run for presidency anymore, claiming in 2002 that he wants to be “Plain citizen Erap.” Take note - PROMISED
It was a promise that he could not help but break seven years later.
“I will only run if there are no worthy candidates,” Erap says in 2009.
““I want to be King again!” declares Erap Estrada” newspaper headlines yelled in large bold letters.
But his candidacy was marred by criticisms. Why should he run when the constitution clearly says that he cannot?
Quoting the constitution:
Article 7, Section 4:The President and the Vice-President shall be elected by direct vote of the people for a term of six years which shall begin at noon on the thirtieth day of June next following the day of the election and shall end at noon of the same date, six years thereafter. The President shall not be eligible for any re-election. No person who has succeeded as President and has served as such for more than four years shall be qualified for election to the same office at any time.
Those who support the eligibility of Estrada raise the following positions: (1) The bar on second election to the presidency applies only to the incumbent president and (2) Estrada served as president for two and a half years only.
The first position argues that the provision is only for incumbent candidates as supported by the phrase “the president.” The second position argues that Estrada only served for two and a half years.
The provision uses the word "succeeded as president" instead of "elected as president" or "became president," which means that it refers to the rule of succession.
The absoluteness of Arroyo's clemency also adds to the legitimacy of Erap's candidacy. Remember: Erap was granted full civil and political rights.
Those that oppose say that the article “any” in “any re-election” and “at any time” counters the argument given by Estrada's supporters. And that the term “succeeded” was not to be confused with the “rule of succession.” Succeeded simply meant that Estrada was successful in becoming the thirteenth president.
The law has many interpretations; but, Erap's camp won anyway. He was granted candidacy on January 20.
But the law only determined if he can legally become president again.
The issues surrounding Estrada are as many as his movies. He was guilty of plunder and perjury. His personal life inlcuded a wife, many mistresses, and a number of children from all the his women. He committed blunder upon blunders in his first term. His statements are beyond explanation. His plan for the philippines if he won are as vague as Mirriam Defensor's vocabulary.
He can run; but is it ethical for him to run?
Estrada took on many names and titles: Black sheep Jose Marcelo Ejercito, Actor Joseph Estrada, Bestfriend ERAP, hero of the masses, President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, Jose Velarde and Plain Citizen Erap; but it is still up to the people if he can also take the title “KING.”
