MANILA – Former president Joseph Estrada, allowed to leave his detention facility for a medical check up, the other day said he would support whoever replaced President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

He called actress Susan Roces “the new symbol and inspiration of the Filipino masses.” Roces is the widow of Estrada’s best friend, the late Fernando Poe, Jr, the King of Philippine Movies, who ran but lost to President Arroyo in last year’s elections. Poe never conceded defeat and his widow is demanding that Mrs. Arroyo resign because she rigged the elections with the help of a Commission on Elections official.

In a statement issued yesterday (July 5), Estrada said: “I will unequivocally support whoever is destined to be the new and popular leader of our people.”

He also said he was no longer interested in regaining his post and “the stolen years of my legitimate presidency.”

COMMENT: Estrada sees hope that he may yet be set free and the plunder case against him dropped. Those hopes were dashed when Poe lost last year, and the possibility grew that he would spend the rest of his life behind bars. Now, with Roces expected to assume the leader’s role of the opposition and President Arroyo embattled, Estrada’s hopes are up again. One hitch: Roces cannot become president under any legal circumstances.

At best, he is praying that whoever replaces Mrs. Arroyo be friendly to his cause.