The heat is up

If you are the owner of a company and you have some of your men applying for the post of COO, who would you choose if you had the following options?

1. One who has been rumored to be a psychotic, has not done well in his years in the company, and looks like an idiot by the way he stands and walks? or
2. One who has been accused a lot of times of using company funds for his own account, pretends to be poor to be pitied, and uses his mother to save his own ass? or
3. One who just came out from jail?

The top candidates for the presidency don’t seem to be presidential at all? I really don’t get it why Filipinos still eat these guys’ crap. When we offer jobs, even just a janitorial job, we screen the applicants and make sure they at least have some qualifications for the job. And that is just a janitorial position. How come the presidency seems to have lost any semblance of significance that the guys who we put there can just apply without possessing any attribute of being a worthy president?

The problem is not really with the candidates. The problem is the voting public. Sad to admit, but it is not only the candidates who are stupid. The voters are.

Can he or can he not?

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.

-Sec. 4, Article VII, 1987 Philippine Constitution

This provision in our beloved Constitution is the most memorized provision at this time. We all know why. The debates were opened by Erap's decision to run for president in the 2010 elections. Jojo Binay is his running mate.

Actually there is no "actual" controversy yet, since there is yet no justiciable issue. In political law, a justiciable issue "implies a given right, legally demandable and enforceable, an act or omission violative of such right, and a remedy granted and sanctioned by law, for said breach of right."

Under the given facts of Erap's "announcing" his bid for president, there is only the need to wait until Erap files his candidacy. Anybody can now question the constitutionality of such act.

Now to the main talk of the town, can Erap really run in the 2010 elections?

IMHO, he cannot. The PRESIDENT cannot run for reelection. Clearly, what Erap is doing is reelection. Notwithstanding the fact that he did not finish his term, he has been duly elected in 2008 as president. That being the case, the constitutional bar applies. He was proclaimed president, he served as president, and he was president, thus he cannot run for reelection.

The point is very simple to make. The legal luminaries on Estrada's camp make the different twists to the one controversial sentence we all have memorized right now.

The unacceptable comeback

Erap and Binay have declared their respective bids for the presidency and the vice-presidency already. Well, this is what we have expected a long time ago. It's official, Erap was not able to unite the opposition he and obviously did not really want the opposition to have a lone candidate.

Binay, on the other hand, the kiss-ass that he is, has accepted the indorsement for VP. Whew! The chief executive of Makati who has his own graft and corruption cases is reaching for his star.

As usual Binay made nasty side comments against the current administration, like he always does. That's what he's good at.

It's time to be vigilant again. Not because they appear to be for the masa it already means they will indeed work for the masa. Look at the apparent contrast between the two. Erap who says he will serve the masses and Binay who usually sides with the big businessmen in Makati. How's that for a tandem?