Former President Joseph Estrada aired confidence on Wednesday that his filing of the certificate of candidacy next week will bring to an end the black propaganda peddled by some presidential candidates that he is withdrawing from the May 2010 race, but expects the same sources to file disqualification petitions against him “using lawyers they believe will not be directly traced to them.”

“However, I believe they will continue to apply fresh deceptive schemes to downplay my candidacy which I expect to turn for the worse as the country goes deeper into the presidential campaign,” Estrada noted.

The popular opposition leader will file his certificate of candidacy before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday.

Recalling his 1998 quest for the presidency, Estrada said, even a Prince of the Catholic Church used every revolting ploy he could muster, not only to completely demonize him but to keep him out of the people’s mind and “out of the presidential race.”

“In fact, a newspaper some Catholic leaders were in tandem with in their struggle not to have me elected, even went to the extent of circulating a tabloid with only one purpose, to vilify and belittle my person that was published only for the duration of the campaign,” Estrada recalled.

On Election Day of 1998, according to Estrada, the same newspaper ran its headline story, “ANYBODY BUT ERAP” quoting the late Jaime Cardinal Sin.

But still the people went ahead to deliver 10.8 million votes to Estrada, the largest recorded majority in the nation’s electoral history.

“That only goes to show that anybody can fool the people once or twice, but not anyone could do it all the time,” the Pwersa ng Masa (PMP) standard bearer said.

Estrada also cited the campaign experience of the late United President Ronald Reagan who was also belittled as a movie actor-turned-presidential candidate, but emerged not only as a winner, but is widely remembered as one of the most popular American presidents.