There is no more equivocation, no indecisive preconditions: Former President Joseph Estrada has already started the process of political mobilization for his 2010 campaign.

This was made clear when he announced the other day he was 99.9 percent sure of running in next year’s presidential elections.

In fact, it was a strong indication, too, that he was calling on all opposition aspirants for the presidency to join him in his campaign or be left out in the alignment of political forces.

As may be recalled, he announced early on that he would seek the presidency only if the opposition failed to unite and present a common bet for president.

It surely sounded like a threat but the known opposition presidential aspirants were undaunted and simply ignored it, and understandably.

Nacionalista Party president and former Senate President Manuel Villar who had long ago made known his presidential ambition, for instance, cannot be expected to give way to Senator Manuel A. Roxas, president of the Liberal Party and another presidential hopeful, and vice-versa.

And, of course, another opposition leader, Senator Jamby Madrigal, has lately announced her own presidential aspiration which she said she would pursue at all cost during the 2010 polls.

Not to be taken lightly, too, is the return in the husting of such figure as Bro. Eddie Villanueva and possibly the emerging Senate leader Francis Escudero.

The lineup of opposition “presidentiables” that appeared in yesterday’s front pages during their 100-meter “Unity Walk” shows the impossibility of Estrada’s precondition for him to desist from running, and he knew it.

Erap Estrada’s provincial forays around the countryside where he enjoys the warm receptions accorded him by the throngs of people who show their elation seeing him after he was convicted of plunder by the Sandiganbayan and then pardoned forthwith by President Arroyo, must have convinced himself that he should regain the presidency to satisfy these people’s cravings for his leadership.

Since his pardon in 2007, reports say he has visited some 64 of the country’s 81 provinces.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile observed that wherever Estrada showed up in the provinces, people of all ages often crowded around him as if he were a long-lost brother.

Up to now, former Senator Ernesto Maceda, also a former Senate President, says the mass of Filipino people sees Erap Estrada as a real-life hero.

It’s inevitable that Estrada walk his talk, so to speak.

But with all these opposition presidential hopefuls eager to compete with each other, including Estrada, how well they expect to fare with a lone administration candidate?

Or didn’t they know?

It may be possible that the multiplying number of opposigovernortion aspirants was precipitated or induced by the self-assurance that whoever is the administration candidate anointed by President Arroyo is doomed to suffer certain defeat.

But administration hopeful Gilberto Teodoro anchors his hope of being elected president precisely only with the endorsement of President Gloria Arroyo and the backing of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD.

Even Bayani Fernando thinks he will win with the president’s endorsement.

That could be the reason, too, Noli de Castro is having second thoughts about his running as an independent.

In functional terms, they are interest articulations, as if you didn’t know.

(zhern_218@yahoo.com)