Can ERAP Run for President in 2010?

The constitutional provision in issue reads: "The President shall not be eligible for any reelection." (See Art. VII, sec. 4.)

Many have argued that the intent of the framers of our constitution, drawing from the long years of the Marcos dictatorship, is that there must only be one term for a person who gets elected president. However, intent does not matter if a provision bears no ambiguity or it is plainly clear.

What applies, rather, is what is called verbal legis rule of constitutional construction otherwise known as the "plain meaning" rule. A provision of the constitution should be taken in its ordinary meaning or everyday usage by the people. And the usual authority or reference for such common understanding would be the dictionary like Merriam-Webster Online.

Thus, in respect of the question of Erap's eligibility or the verb "eligible" in the above-quoted provision, the three interconnected words that we need to consider are "President," "reelection" and "any."

An applicable definition by Merriam-Webster Online of a "President" reads: "an elected official serving as both chief of state and chief political executive in a republic having a presidential government." Thus, when we use "President," this can only refer to the incumbent or the present occupant of the office of president.

"President" is then linked with the term "reelection," which Merriam-Webster Online defines as "to elect for another term in office." Simply put, "reelection" ordinarily connotes a person in office running for the same office like an incumbent president being a candidate again for the presidency.

Then there is the modifier "any" of "reelection." The use of "any" here with "reelection," should be understood in the context of a president being reelected more than once consecutively or in succession. The classic and unprecedented example is U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt or FDR who was reelected thrice. He was first elected president of the United States in 1932. He was later reelected in 1936, reelected again in 1940, and reelected for a third and last time in 1944 (he died in 1945 without finishing his fourth term that was yet to end in 1948).

Indeed, FDR's seeming lifetime term prompted the passage and ratification in 1951 of the 22^nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution for a two-term limit. "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice..."

In fine, "The President shall not be eligible for any reelection" can only mean as thus written. For that matter, the writers of our constitution could very well have simply copied the 22^nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and provided for: "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than once," if that was their real intention as many now claim, but they did not.

So, Erap is obviously not serving as president now, being simply a private citizen. Consequently, he can run again for president in 2010.