Released on: November 3, 2007, 7:47 pm

Press Release Author: Sobriety for the Philippines

Industry: Media

Press Release Summary: Majority of Filipinos welcomed the executive clemency granted
to defamed former leader Joseph \"Erap\" Estrada by incumbent President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo. His supporters, however, still maintain that the present
administration is illegitimate despite the apparently conciliatory tone of Estrada\'s
speech during the hero\'s welcome that greeted him after his release.

Press Release Body: The Philippines generally welcomed the long-awaited release of
ex-President Joseph Estrada following the clemency extended to the former leader
accused of politically motivated trumped-up charges. A few weeks before his release,
a nationwide survey showed that an overwhelming number of Filipinos believe he is
innocent of Plunder and that they favor his pardon in case of conviction. According
to the Social Weather Station survey held in early September, a total of 62 percent
think the deposed leader is innocent of the charges, while 84 percent believe
Estrada should be pardoned.

Estrada was convicted of Plunder charges by a \'kangaroo\' court division of the
Sandiganbayan specially created to try the former President following the
conspiracy-led uprising unseated him in 2001. The pardon was given after the
six-year trial ended in a guilty verdict during a heavily-censored promulgation in
September 2007. During the media coverage of the promulgation, the authorities made
sure that the public would not see the dramatic moment when Estrada, who remains
heavily popular with the Filipinos masses, received the \"guilty\" verdict.

Supporters of the former Philippine leader are delighted to see him free again but
have reservations about the nature of the pardon and the administration of Arroyo.
Estrada and the opposition have long maintained the illegitimacy of Arroyo\'s
administration after the constitutionally questionable decision by the Supreme Court
that declared the position of President vacant and Arroyo as the successor. In 2004,
Macapagal-Arroyo \'won\' in the presidential elections heavily tainted with
allegations of electoral fraud. In legal terms, Estrada\'s acceptance of the
executive clemency connotes recognition of the authority of Arroyo. According to
Estrada\'s followers, they want him free but still consider Arroyo\'s administration
as illegitimate.

Filipinos generally believe that Estrada, a former actor who rose from being a
mayor, senator and Vice-President before becoming President with the highest
plurality vote in Philippine history, is not guilty of any of the charges. Before
his arrest and detention, Estrada declined two offers made by the administration of
Macapagal-Arroyo for him to live in voluntary exile in exchange for waiving criminal
prosecution.

Estrada won as the Philippine\'s 13th President by a landslide election in 1998 but
was unable to finish term after a corrupt governor accused him of pocketing jueteng
kickbacks. The accusations mothballed into the so-called EDSA II rebellion backed by
the Army\'s chief-of-staff. Majority of Filipinos believe that Estrada\'s predecessor,
Fidel Ramos and then Vice-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, led the conspiracy that
used the kickback issue as a propaganda ploy to bring Estrada into public disfavor.

Objective political analysts suspect that Ramos sought to depose Estrada to avoid
prosecution for the scandalous deals his administration entered into. Ramos was
named in several multi-million dollar corruption exposes during his term, including
the infamous Clark Centennial Exposition project and the PEA-AMARI Manila Bay
Reclamation deal, dubbed to be the \"grandmother of all scams.\" Estrada, who assumed
office with bankrupt national treasury funds, had threatened to investigate Ramos\'
complicity in the scams.

The 2001 EDSA II rebellion against the defamed former President acquired the backing
of certain business leaders who were disadvantaged by Estrada\'s pro-poor policies.
The Catholic Church led by the powerful Jaime Cardinal Sin also played a part in
Estrada\'s unseating. The politically meddling Cardinal Sin saw a Catholic ally in
the successor, Macapagal Arroyo. Despite numerous and persistent allegations of
corruption and electoral fraud against the new administration, the Catholic Church
continued to support Arroyo, who indeed proved to be a faithful supporter of the
Church\'s positions on various social issues including family planning and the death
penalty.



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