erapForty-four days after former Philippine President Joseph “Erap” Ejercito Estrada has been convicted by the Sandiganbayan guilty beyond reasonable doubt for the crime of plunder, the deposed President is now set to accept and sign the order of executive clemency issued last night by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, current President of the Philippines. Previously, the legal team representing Erap withdrew the Motion for Reconsideration which they filed 15 days after the conviction was promulgated, and instead sent a petition letter to GMA asking for presidential pardon. The lady President didn’t waste time and just a few days after, issued the clemency with a condition that Mr. Estrada will distance himself from politics from hereon.

When the conviction first came out in September 12, 2007, I surely believed that an executive pardon is far from happening, at least not in the next 4 years, not when GMA is still the President. I was dead wrong, because it didn’t even take 4 months, but barely 44 days and now the “agreement” is a done deal. Read the rest of this entry »