Press Release
February 4, 2007

DRA LOI: I AM FIT AND READY TO SEEK RE-ELECTION

Finally breaking her silence on the next possible chapter of her political career, Sen. Luisa "Loi" Ejercito Estrada yesterday said she is physically, mentally and even morally fit to run again as senator on May 2007 elections.

The former First Lady said that she is receiving "words of encouragement" from several people including Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Manila Bulletin Publisher Emilio Yap.

If President (Joseph) Estrada reconsiders his position and asked me to run, then I am physically and mentally fit to do so, the wife of the deposed president said.

Popularly known as Dra. Loi, the former First Lady was a reluctant candidate in the 2001 elections and only agreed to run on the request of her husband, who at the time, wanted to find out if indeed, he has been discarded by the electorate after his ignominous removal from power through the so-called EDSA Dos People Power Revolt a few months earlier.

The wife of President Estrada was ranking between 18th to 20th position in the surveys before the 2001 elections. But she ended up number 7 in election day on 2001. President Estrada had said his wifes victory in 2001 and the subsequent election of his eldest son, Jinggoy, to the Senate in the 2004 elections, convinced him that he still commands the respect of a big portion of the countrys electorate.

This time, however, President Estrada is considering to field his other son from Guia Gomez, San Juan Mayor JV Ejercito, to run in the Senate in place of the former First Lady, who is still elgible to run for two more terms as senator.

While stressing that it would be her husband who would have the last word on the issue, Dra. Loi said that she still has "other pending advocacies" that she wants to see realized by enacting them into laws.

Dra. Loi is the principal author of RA 9262 or the Violence Against Women and Childrens Act of 2004 and is at present working on several bills aim to make health care more accessible and to protect the environment.

RA 9262 is now currently being used by social workers and law enforcement agencies in helping women and children victims seek justice from abuses, many of them occuring inside their homes with the culprits mostly their close kin and relatives. A medical doctor by profession, Dra. Loi also said that with the retirement from politics of Sen. Juan Flavier, there would no longer be a medical practitioner in the Senate, who could work to make the countrys health and medical services more relevant to the needs of the poor people.

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