Comelec allows Estrada to run for president in May polls

Former President Joseph "Erap" Estrada being fed by a city councilor. Image courtesy of {link:http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/gallery/091203/GAL-09Dec03-3255/media/PHO-09Dec03-191523.jpg}Washington Post{/link}

A Commission on Elections division allowed former President Joseph Estrada to run in the May 2010 presidential elections.

“Let the people decide who will be the next president,” said the resolution released by the poll body’s Second Division, junking the petition filed against Estrada by lawyers Oliver Lozano, Evillo Pormento, and Elly Pamatong last December.

The petitioners earlier said Estrada’s candidacy is unconstitutional, noting that Section 4, Article VII of the Constitution clearly prohibits presidents from running for re-election.

The provision states that “the President shall not be eligible for any reelection. 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.”

copied in toto from GMA News