Erap’s choice

Batas Mauricio

SOMEONE from the camp of former President and incumbent Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada and asked me: “Do you want to know why, despite Estrada’s good assessment of Liberal Party presidential candidate Mar Roxas when Roxas was the trade secretary of Estrada in 2000, the former president did not support him but supported Sen. Grace Poe instead?”

I naturally answered, yes, I wanted to know why Estrada chose to support Grace instead of Mar, so I can put in proper perspective the apparent sour-graping of Roxas when Estrada made known his choice on March 29, 2016.

The caller told me: “The reason is that Estrada did not like what Roxas did in 2001, during the so-called second Edsa Revolution that toppled the former movie actor from power.” Why, I asked, what did Roxas do then? Well, the caller said to me, Estrada expected Roxas to stand by him at that time, but Roxas was one of those who immediately left the former president. Estrada resented and never forgot that, I was told.

The same caller also explained that it was actually the same feeling of resentment that prompted Estrada to junk Vice President Jejomar Binay in favor of Sen. Poe. Binay, it will be recalled, was Estrada’s vice presidential candidate when he ran for the presidency for the second time in 2010. The two of them founded the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), the party being used by Binay in his presidential run in 2016.

Yet, Estrada felt that Binay cheated on him, and did not really campaign for him in his sorties. I was told there were reports that reached Estrada that Binay in fact campaigned for then Sen. Benigno Aquino III, the only son of former President Cory Aquino, who, in turn gave Binay his first crack at big-time politics by appointing him as officer-in-charge of Makati City in 1986.

The reports appeared to have been confirmed when close relatives of then Sen. Aquino came out openly for a “Noy-Bi” ticket, which meant the tandem of Sen. Noynoy Aquino and then Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay. My caller said Estrada greatly resented this, too, and will never forget it for as long as he lived.

If it is any consolation, this phenomenon of disloyalty and treachery even against close friends and associates already existed in biblical times. Many biblical characters turned traitors against their friends and their family members, in a mad scramble to gain power.  Unfortunately for these men and women, their treachery only brought them more misery, and even death.

In Proverbs 12 of the Bible, we find the following lament about disloyalty and treachery: “Help, Lord, for no one is faithful anymore; those who are loyal have vanished from the human race. Everyone lies to their neighbor; they flatter with their lips but harbor deception in their hearts.

“May the Lord silence all flattering lips and every boastful tongue–those who say, `By our tongues we will prevail; our own lips will defend us–who is lord over us?’ `Because the poor are plundered and the needy groan, I will now arise,’ says the Lord. `I will protect them from those who malign them…’”

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com