Only this afternoon, October 25, 2007, when the office of the president released an official statement announcing the presidential pardon to the disgraced former president Estrada who was convicted of plunder. Prior to the announcement, the legal team of Mr. Estrada applied for and asked President Gloria Arroyo to pardon Mr. Estrada for him to attend to his dying mother presently confined in a hospital.
The quick resolution for pardon was met with violent reactions from the prosecutors, the plunder watch group, the witnesses and the people who have the axe to grind against the former president. But a private survey group released their latest data showing majority of the people favors executive clemency to Mr. Estrada. The pardon is absolute but the forfeiture of all the alleged ill gotten wealth remains in force and ready for government take over any time soon. Tomorrow will be the new day for the former president, and his release will put an end to his almost six years imprisonment in his Tanay rest house, located south of Manila.
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