If Pope Benedict XVI can, so can “Erap.”

This is how the camp of former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada answered Sunday the question on whether or not he, at the elderly age of 73, could still lead the nation.

Estrada’s camp cited how the Holy Fathers of the Roman Catholic Church prove that the age factor is not an issue when it comes to leadership.

“The cardinals doubted Pope John XXIII if he could still perform his functions, but he later started the historic Vatican II (Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican). Look at Pope Benedict XVI, he is 82 years old already,” Estrada’s campaign flier stated.

The flier also said the former President could still jog, even though he had knee replacements surgery in Hong Kong four years ago due to osteoarthritis.

“He can still run and he can still run this country,” Estrada”s flier said.

His camp also pointed out that former United States President Ronald Reagan got elected when he was 74 years old and even got re-elected.

Estrada said he is in “perfect health” to run the country once more after being ousted in 2001 by an uprising.

He said the result of his executive checkup at the Cardinal Santos Hospital in San Juan is open for public scrutiny.

The Estrada camp has remained confident that the former president is on his way to a second stint as the country's chief executive despite fund lack and low survey rating.

“Their (survey frontrunners) ratings are going down, while our’s are going up. This is good because it is hard to peak early. We are peaking at the right time,”Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) Secretary General Horacio “Boy” Morales said addressing volunteers of the mass-based support group JEEP ni Erap in Club Filipino, Greenhills, San Juan last Friday.

Morales, former Agraraian Reform Secretary was referring to Estrada’s continued favorable showing in the nationwide pre-election surveys of the Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia.