Arroyo frees Erap as Senate pries into her role in ZTE deal

(Updated 8:10 p.m.) President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Thursday granted executive clemency and sent to freedom former President Joseph Estrada, whom she helped oust from power in 2001. Mrs Arroyo's decision in effect extinguished Estrada's criminal liability, and left for naught six year's worth of trial work by public and private prosecutors. The anti-graft court Sandiganbayan found Estrada guilty of plunder only last Sept. 12, and sentenced him to up to 40 years in prison. Although it has been floated by Arroyo deputies early on, the grant of executive clemency came as a surprise to many. It was announced barely a couple of hours after the Justice department forwarded its favorable recommendation. It also came on the same day that the Senate resumed its hearing on the allegedly bribe-ridden national broadband network project granted to China's ZTE Corporation for $329.48 million. At the hearing, businessman Jose de Venecia III revealed that Mrs Arroyo told a Cabinet member to approve the project for ZTE even if he did not want to accept he P200 million bribe he had been offered for it. De Venecia, son of Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. and now tenuous Arroyo ally, had also claimed that Mrs Arroyo's husband, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, was to receive $70 million as commission "for serving as coach" for ZTE to bag the contract. Questionable basis After the Justice department's recommendation came out, Chief Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio promptly questioned the constitutional basis for the grant of executive clemency. Villa-Ignacio said Estrada is disqualified from receiving clemency as he had been impeached by the House of Representatives in November 2000, and later faced impeachment trial. Too, Villa-Ignacio said Estrada's conviction for plunder has yet to be declared final and executory by the court. In a press conference, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said President Arroyo signed Thursday afternoon the executive clemency for Estrada. Bunye said it is the administration's policy to release inmates who have reached the age of 70, and that Estrada has already served more than six years in detention while being tried for plunder. The President's spokesman also noted that Estrada committed not to seek public office, in his application for pardon. "Whereas, this administration has the policy of releasing inmates who have reached the age of 70, "Whereas, Joseph Ejercito Estrada has been under detention for six year and a half years, "Whereas, Joseph Ejercito Estrada has publicly committed to no longer seek any elective position or office, Rights restored "In view hereof in pursuant of the authority conferred upon me by the Constitution, I hereby grant Executive clemency to Joseph Ejercito Estrada, convicted by the Sandiganbayan of plunder and imposed a penalty of reclusion perpetua. He is hereby restored to his civil and political rights," Bunye, quoting the order signed by President Arroyo said. In the press conference, Bunye said that with President Arroyo's grant of an executive clemency, Estrada may be able to walk out his Tanay resthouse as a free man by Friday noon, saying the pardon will take effect upon Estrada's acceptance of the clemency. Bunye said Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno will deliver at 9 a.m. Friday a copy of the order of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo granting executive clemency to the deposed leader. "If the President accepts the pardon, then the papers will be formally transmitted by Secretary Puno to the Sandiganbayan," Bunye said, adding that the Interior department will in turn accomplish the documents and bring the documents to the Sandiganbayan. Bunye said the entire process could be over in three hours. Estrada, the Philippines' 13th president, received a record vote of over 11 million in 1998 and obtained the highest margin of victory in national election history. He has the dubious honor of being the only president ever impeached and convicted for plunder. Forfeitures remain Bunye, who received the order as acting Executive Secretary, also said the "forfeitures imposed by the Sandiganbayan remain in force and in full including all writs and processes issued by the Sandiganbayan in pursuance hereof except for the bank account(s) he owned before his tenure as President." On Monday, Estrada – through his lawyer Jose Flaminiano – formally asked President Arroyo to grant him pardon after his lawyers withdrew an appeal for the Sandiganbayan to reverse its September 12 guilty verdict. Warning of "bad feelings" that may "boil" should Estrada be locked up at the National Penitentiary, Flaminano appealed for Mrs Arroyo to grant her predecessor “full, free and unconditional pardon." Flaminiano said Estrada's ouster from the presidency and the "humiliation" that came with it was enough punishment already. Hours before Bunye’s announcement, the lead government prosecutor in the Estrada plunder case questioned the Justice department’s legal basis for considering the deposed leader’s application for pardon. Prosecutor's protest Special Prosecutor Villa-Ignacio, in a three-page letter to acting Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera, said that under Section 19, Article VII of the 1987 Constitution, Estrada is disqualified from seeking pardon for his plunder conviction because he was impeached by the Lower House. Villa-Ignacio also said that even if Estrada was not convicted by the Senate impeachment court after the walkout of congressmen-prosecutors in 2001, the disqualification still applies because the Constitution spoke of “impeachment" and not “conviction." Even Estrada's age at 70, he argued, has no bearing on the issue of pardon as he stressed that the 'overriding consideration for the grant of pardon has always been rehabilitative factor and remorse' on the part of the convicted offender. To recall, the Sandiganbayan on September 12 judged Estrada guilty of plunder and sentenced him to reclusion perpetua, or a jail term of up to 40 years. The former leader was, however, acquitted of the lesser crime of perjury. The antigraft court allowed Estrada to remain detained in his Tanay resthouse "until further order" of the Sandiganbayan, but ordered the forfeiture of his bank accounts and Estrada’s so-called Boracay Mansion in New Manila, Quezon City in favor of the Philippine government. The ruling covered P542.701 million plus interests and income – including the P200-million deposited under the account of the Erap Muslim Youth Foundation, P189.7 million worth of Jose Velarde accounts including interest and income earned. - GMANews.TV