Pardon shows admin's lack of political will vs corruption - prosecutor

Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio on Thursday expressed dismay and disbelief over President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s grant of executive clemency to her predecessor. Villa-Ignacio said he could not believe President Arroyo’s decision to pardon deposed President Joseph Estrada after all the effort poured in by prosecutors in proving the plunder case against Estrada. The special prosecutor said President Arroyo’s decision merely shows the government’s lack of political will to enforce the court’s ruling to convict Estrada, and the lack of political will to fight corruption. “It’s a done deal. I am in a state of disbelief. You can’t just imagine.... after the prosecution was able to show that we can do it… We complied with what the law says, what the rules say, and in the end we were able to achieve our goal, we won the case," Villa-Ignacio said. “It goes to show that the government has no political will to enforce the decision by the judicial department, and in the end, it has no political will to fight corruption," he added. Earlier in the day, Villa-Ignacio questioned the Justice department’s legal basis for considering the deposed leader’s application for pardon. 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 70 years, 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. "Mr. Estrada continues to assail the integrity of our criminal justice system as he alleges that he will not obtain justice in our courts. Even after his conviction, he has made no admission of guilt, no expression of contrition and no offer of full restitution. Quite to the contrary, he has remained defiant and continues to attack the integrity of our legal processes," Villa-Ignacio said in the letter. - GMANews.TV