Manila’s Arroyo pardons Estrada
Manila, Otcober 25,2007-Philippine president Gloria Arroyo granted former president Joseph Estrada’s application for pardon.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said Arroyo granted the executive clemency for Estrada on Thursday afternoon. The pardon shall take effect as soon as Estrada accepts it. It bars Estrada from running fom public office again but “restores all his civil and political rights.”
Estrada was convicted guilty of plunder by the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan on September and sentenced to life imprisonment for accepting bribe from illegal numbers game jueteng, kickbacks from tobacco excise taxes and illegal commissions from the sale of the shares of a company, and of by depositing huge amount of money in a bank account under an alias.
In a television interview, Estrada’s son, Senator Jinggoy Estrada, thanked the Arroyo administration.
Photo Credits: Estrada (news.yahoo.com), Arroyo( www.philembassy.se)
