Dying dynasty

PH Political Scene
By DANIEL LLANTO

Jinggoy, Erap, and JV.

The Estrada-Ejercito political dynasty, which dwarfs all dynasties in sheer insensitivity and utter lack of delicadeza, is dying. It’s in the throes of death not because the political brand has lost its luster, especially among the masa which can be relied upon at any time to give the vote to anyone anointed by its patriarch, former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada – his progenies and even mistresses. The uneducated vote, Miriam Defensor Santiago never fails to depreciate this phenomenon that continues to embrace Estrada with his champion-of-the-poor, movie-hero image of long ago. And that was when Erap’s stoop was more of a swagger than geriatric mannerisms and he spoke with less marbles in his mouth than when he ran and won as Manila city mayor.

It is not even the pork barrel scam that is about to deal the fatal blow to the Erap dynasty, although it accounts for a big part of the reasons. The Supreme Court will be doing the honors. This will come as SC finally decides on a petition seeking to disqualify Erap in the Manila mayoral race on the ground that the 2007 pardon granted to him by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did not go with the right to again seek public office. The same petition had been junked a couple of times, once by the Commission on Elections for “lack of merit.”

But a foreboding sense of doom was apparently starting to bother Estrada when he complied with an SC order to comment on the case last August. Did he try to feel the pulse of SC justices and detected no favorable sentiment? Thus, Estrada turned in a 32-page comment through his lawyers. All of it just to emphasize his point that the GMA pardon was absolute and restored his “full civil and political rights including the right to seek public elective office.”

After Sen. Jinggoy Estrada delivered his infamous “selective justice” privilege speech last week, he spoke to reporters of the strong whiff his dynastic family got of the impending SC decision that would swing the axe on Erap. His half-brother Sen. JV Ejercito also saw the same red flag and, together, they cried of political persecution in the offing. They said they kept hearing first-hand reports that the elder Estrada is in line for a disqualification judgment from SC.

Jinggoy said: “First, me, then my cousin ER and I heard, my father will be next. What could that be called except public persecution?” Together with Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., Jinggoy is of course impaled in the cross of the pork barrel scam as the first batch of lawmakers to be charged with the Ombudsman. As for Erap’s nephew ER Ejercito, he was disqualified by the Comelec as Laguna governor for election overspending. Laguna had a voting population of 1.5 million for which a candidate can only spend P3 per registered voter or a total P4-5 million. But Ejercito spent over P20 million in the May 13 elections.

From the flurry of “epal” activities Erap had in Manila, he too seemed to have an inkling of the disqualification judgment forthcoming from the high court. The aim is obvious: to show one and all that he is the capable and dynamic mayor Manila dearly loves and the city will rise in arms if he is removed from his post. With much fanfare, he personally led a cleanup of Manila streets. True to the “epal” tradition, he had elegant waiting sheds constructed in strategic locations complete with wi-fi capability and the life-size selfie images of him and Vice Mayor Isko Moreno.

If these body language gestures and signs are any indications, Estrada is not really making the Manila mayorship his last hurrah in politics like he promised last May. What greater vindication is there than reclaiming the highest office of the land? He got within striking distance in 2010. Too bad the SC disqualification ruling, when and if it does come, will not even make him eligible to run as dogcatcher. And when the main torso dies, the rest of the tree will not be worth a damn.

For crying out loud, Jinggoy put himself in a deeper hole. While he railed against the Commission on Audit for implicating him in the pork barrel mess, reporters dug into his personal file and found a P120-million mansion being built in his name in one of Metro Manila’s high-end subdivisions. According to Rappler.com, Estrada is building the property in Wack-Wack, Mandaluyong by using the name of Verdant Forest Highlands Inc., a bogus realty firm with questionable links to Erap.

Jinggoy supposedly bought the 3,000-square meter lot in 2012. Subdivision residents in the vicinity said it was “common knowledge” among them that the property is owned by Estrada. But in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) for 2012, where he declared a net worth of P193.6 million, Estrada did not mention the Wack Wack property. Construction was ongoing until the second week of September but was stopped last week, Rappler said.

Perhaps to hide its true ownership, the property was listed at the Mandaluyong Registry of Deeds not in Estrada’s name but that of Verdant Forest Highlands. What is Verdant? In the impeachment complaint against Erap in 2001, Verdant was mentioned as a “thinly capitalized dummy corporation organized by the lawyers of former President Joseph Estrada, to house and conceal his beneficial ownership” of 551 Wack Wack Road also in Mandaluyong.