Estrada claims victory three days before RP elections
Estrada claims victory three days before RP elections
MANILA (Agencies): Vice President Joseph Estrada, the main opposition presidential candidate, claimed victory yesterday, three days before elections to choose a successor to President Fidel Ramos.
"It's all over but the counting," Estrada said. "I think I will win because all the surveys show I am leading."
The respected Social Weather Stations survey organization this week said Estrada solidified his lead with a 33 percent support rating, 18 percentage points ahead of his closest rival, ruling party candidate House Speaker Jose de Venecia.
Estrada has dominated the 11-candidate race since January.
"It's going to be an honest and orderly election, but we have to be vigilant. We can't afford a confrontation," Estrada said.
Estrada spoke with reporters as he arrived for an open air mass for his Struggle of the Nationalist Filipino Masses party at Pinaglabanan Shrine, dedicated to Filipino revolutionaries who won a major battle against Spanish colonial forces a century ago in suburban San Juan.
The former movie heartthrob, who has admitted to womanizing, gambling and heavy drinking in the past, was accompanied by popular local actor Richard Gomez.
About 2,000 people gathered at the shrine in San Juan, Estrada's hometown. As he waded through the crowd, some women tried to kiss him while others asked for his signature on their shirts and campaign calendars.
Some business groups worry that Estrada, a college dropout whose poor English has often been the butt of jokes, does not have the ability to sustain the country's economic growth established under Ramos.
On Thursday, Estrada visited the Philippine Stock Exchange and tried to quell businessmen's fears, saying his administration would be "investor-friendly."
In a radio interview, Estrada repeated his campaign promise of developing agriculture and ensuring food security, and restoring law and order within six months in his presidency.
Later yesterday, influential Cardinal Jaime Sin led an ecumenical prayer at the Manila Cathedral attended by nuns, priests, Buddhist monks, Moslem holymen and member of a tribal group who slit the throat of a chicken as an offering for a peaceful vote.
After the prayers, children opened imitation ballot boxes to free white doves symbolizing peaceful elections.
De Venecia, Ramos' handpicked candidate, received 15 percent support in the SWS survey, which had a margin of error of 3 percentage points. He has a reputation as a wheeler-dealer, but is credited with mustering congressional support for Ramos' economic reform agenda.
There have been 26 deaths so far in the campaign, but it is the most peaceful in the Philippines long history of violent political change.
Earlier in the day, a helicopter carrying an opposition congressional candidate in central Leyte island was attacked by gunfire when it landed after distributing political flyers.
Officials earlier said two were hurt, but the Air Transportation Office later said all four aboard escaped without injury.
In local financial markets investors cast aside jitters about the possibility of an Estrada presidency. The Manila stock market's main index ended nearly one percent higher at 2,209.96. on what was the last trading day before polling.
The peso also ended higher at 39.61 to the dollar against Thursday's 39.86, having hit a day high of 39.30.
"People are accepting the possibility that Erap could be the next president," a trader in a foreign brokerage said.
In his home province in northern Pangasinan, President Fidel Ramos, continued campaigning for de Venecia.