Press Release
January 4, 2008

ERAP WILL SPLIT OPPOSITION - GORDON

"If there is any personality that would divide the opposition in the 2010 elections it is former President Joseph 'Erap' Estrada."

So said Sen. Richard Gordon, one of those mentioned as probable administration-backed presidential candidate in 2010.

According to Gordon, he saw no other possible motive why President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo pardoned Estrada after his conviction for plunder, restoring to him all his civil and political rights, except to divide the opposition.

Gordon said he believed that Estrada should first have been sent to prison to serve his life sentence even for one day to serve as a lesson that there is nobody above the law and everybody should be punished for violating the law.

If Erap is allowed to run and divides the opposition in the presidential race in 2010, Gordon said, the administration-backed candidate would be certain to win that race.

Gordon himself has been floated as a probable presidential candidate with Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia as his running mate for vice president. Political observers said that the Gordon-Gwen tandem "would be the team to beat" in the next presidential election.

The team is considered potent because Gordon hails from Luzon while Garcia is from the Visayas. The team would attract voters from Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao where there are many Cebuanos, Tagalogs and Ilocanos.

Senator Richard Gordon earlier laughed off Estrada's declaration that he might for president in 2010 if there would not be any credible opposition candidate for the top national office.

Gordon, a lawyer, said that Estrada was prohibited from running for reelection under the Constitution which limits the president to only "one term". Since Estrada has already served as president, he can no longer qualify for another term, Gordon declared.

However, Gordon added, if Estrada can run again for president, "then he should run just to test whether the Filipino people really wants change, or simply wants to be entertained." During an interview over Radio Station DZBB, Gordon admitted that "I'm available to run for president and I've been thinking about it. I am no hypocrite."

He added that ever since he entered public service as mayor of Olongapo, he had always wanted to serve the people by bringing them up the social and economic scale and not just make broken promises on which the people will rely.

"Surely, if Erap runs, that would divide the opposition," said Gordon. "But if Erap is a candidate, the issues raised would be about his record as president, especially his conviction for plunder, and not that of the administration's presidential bet," Erap declared.

According to Gordon, it would be interesting to find out what the public's reaction might be to Erap's announcement that he would run anew for the presidency.

"For me," he said in Tagalog, "what is important is the reaction of the Filipinos nationally. Although we pitied him when he was under detention [while on trial for plunder], we should first consider our sense of justice (katarungan) before our sense of pity (awa)."

He added that "While we all condemn graft and corruption, this is the first time that a president in our country who has been sentenced [for corruption] but has not spent a single day in [state] prison, unlike in Korea, and other countries, because he was immediately released on pardon." Gordon was referring to two former presidents of Korea who spent time in jail after having been convicted of graft.

"Fortunately," Gordon said, "we have what is called a moral backbone, so that even if we like one person, even if he is our son or daughter, or friend, we should tell him that what he has done or is planning to do is not allowed."

It will be recalled that during a visit to Cebu recently, some Cebu politicians floated the idea of a tandem of Gordon and Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia for president and vice president, respectively, in the 2010 election.

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