Erap willing to join People Power revolt if elections are rigged

Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) standard-bearer former President Joseph Estrada, who was ousted through a mass public uprising in 2001, expressed his willingness to join another People Power revolt if May polls results are discovered to be rigged. Estrada, who was convicted of plunder, said he will join hands “join hands" in another mass uprising with Liberal Party presidential bet Senator Benigno Aquino III should massive cheating attempt to manipulate the results of the coming elections. “If there will be cheating, I’ll be joining hands with him [Aquino] to protect the sovereign will of the people… We can have this People Power again if there is glaring cheating or manipulation of the election," the former president said in a press briefing on Monday. He added that he will be “at the frontline" of any move to defend the election results from cheating since he had experienced being a “victim of the abuse of democratic processes." Estrada, who won by landslide during the 1998 elections, was ousted as president in 2001 after being accused of corruption through a popular street uprising participated by the military and Church officials. In September 2007, the Sandiganbayan convicted Estrada for plunder and sentenced him to a lifetime in jail, as well as disqualified him from seeking any public office. He was pardoned by his successor, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a month later. Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales has however said that the Catholic Church will not support calls for another People Power uprising if the May elections fail or even if there are strong suspicions of cheating. Admin bets to benefit from cheating? Asked on who he thinks will benefit from attempts to rig the upcoming polls, Estrada said he did not want to speculate on the matter. Any attempt to cheat in the coming elections will not come from the PMP camp and Aquino’s camp, since he and the LP standard-bearer are the current frontrunners in the presidential race. “We don’t even know yet who can be behind this. I don’t like to speculate who will benefit from all this... Of course, Noynoy and myself are number one and two. We want this election to push through and to have a very credible election," he said. Former Senate President Ernesto Maceda, PMP campaign-manager, for his part, said that administration party candidates are more likely to cheat the results of the upcoming polls. “I’ve been in 18 elections. It is elementary that the only people who are in the position to cheat are administration candidates. They have the sympathy of the Commission on Elections, the protection of the Philippine National Police and all the guns at their disposal," he said. ‘May the best man win’ Despite expressing willingness to join Aquino in another people power revolt, Estrada also warned the LP standard-bearer of “scaremongering" by saying that a mass uprising will break out in case the senator loses in the upcoming polls. “Let’s not preempt and say that he [Aquino] is already a sure winner and if he is cheated, there will be people power. That is a very wrong statement," he said. Estrada said that the presidential race is now between him and Aquino, since a recent survey showed a decline Nacionalista Party presidential bet Manuel Villar Jr.’s preference ratings. Estrada said he is still confident that he can regain the presidency through voters who belong to the masses, whom he thinks will be “the silent majority" in the upcoming polls. “Senator Aquino should not speak too soon unless he has won… The race is not yet over. May the best man win," he said. - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV