The Supreme Court rejected a petition Tuesday seeking to disqualify former leader Joseph “Erap” Estrada from running for president in the May elections. Estrada will face another disqualification case at the election commission Wednesday, but says he is confident he would be allowed to join the presidential race. “I am very confident, there's no law that could stop me from running for president,” Estrada told Reuters by telephone. “These cases against me have no basis at all.” The Philippine constitution prohibits a president from seeking more than one term, but Estrada was ousted midway through his tenure in 2001 and claims he can contest again. Estrada was convicted of plunder and later pardoned. He remains popular especially among the poor, but investors are worried about his possible return to office because his government had a reputation for profligate spending. Tales of Estrada's midnight parties with gambling and drinking buddies were commonplace in Manila at the time. Three independent public opinion polls conducted in early December 2009 showed Estrada at third place in the presidential poll stakes behind front-runners Senators Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino and Manuel “Manny” Villar. 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. The petition was filed by the group Vanguar. SC spokesperson Midas Marquez said the high court deemed that Vanguard did not have substantive arguments in its petition. Marquez said there are still pending disqualification cases against Estrada before the Commission on Elections so it is premature to file a case before the Supreme Court. Estrada's camp said the constitutional provision does not apply to him since he was unable to complete his 6-year term.
