By MARK JOSEPH UBALDE
A PHOTOGRAPH of former President Joseph Estrada’s ballot without any vote for vice president has been circulating all over the Web, feeding speculations that he had dropped his running mate Jejomar Binay.
The picture, which was posted via Twitter’s Twitpic platform, shows a man who appears to be Estrada, feeding the ballot into the PCOS machine.
The picture was apparently uploaded by a certain Ernie Sarmiento and has been passed around in social networking sites like Facebook shortly after Estrada cast his votes in San Juan City on Monday.
Rez Cortez, Estrada’s confidant, dismissed the photo as mere intrigue, saying the image could have easily been manipulated and passed around.
The photo fueled talks that Estrada resents Binay being paired with other presidential candidates. Weeks before the election Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero and Party-list Ang Ladlad began publicly endorsing a “NoyBi” tandem pairing Binay with Liberal Party standard bearer Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.
“Erap is not immature. In fact, he wants Binay to win,” Cortez told VERA Files.
But Red Santos, a photographer for the Next Picture Photo Agency, who was also in the precinct when Estrada voted, confirmed to VERA Files that he himself has the same picture.
According to him, he and other photographers were nitpicking on their photos when a colleague from the European Press Agency told them to check their files again.
“As is yung photo. The thing speaks for itself,” he said.
Election lawyer Romeo Macalintal warned that photographers caught possessing the said photo could be liable for an election offense.
According to him, under the Omnibus Election Code, “anyone who attempts to know the contents of a voter’s ballot can be liable for an election offense.”
“Merely looking at the ballot is already an offense,” he said.
Macalintal said that it was now up to Estrada whether he wants to pursue a case or not.-with Ellen Tordesillas