Saturday, October 27, 2007 Pooled editorials: Erap pardon wrong, ill-timed
FORMER president Joseph Estrada has already been detained for six years and a half and is aging and thus can benefit from government policy of releasing convicts aged 70 or over.
Those are the stated reasons in the executive clemency granted him Thursday by President Arroyo.
First, his detention has not been exactly the kind suffered by those accused of a most heinous crime, plunder of one’s country. He has stayed in a house, not in jail, and enjoyed amenities of home.
Aged convicts must still spend some time in the penitentiary before being freed. Old age doesn’t justify immediate release. A convict needs a prison stay. He has to experience the reality of punishment to make him appreciate the consequence of crime.
Rejection of guilt
That is especially true of Mr. Estrada who stubbornly insists he did no wrong and is just persecuted by bad guys in politics.
Pardon and refusal to admit guilt cannot sit in the same room. Totally remorseless, Mr. Estrada doesn’t think he committed a crime. He embraces pardon but rejects basic atonement.
On reasons not stated in the pardon order, most infirm is the argument that it will resolve issue of legitimacy of Mrs. Arroyo’s rule.
Doubts about her 2001 ascent to power have long been resolved by the Supreme Court ruling, which is definitely more acceptable than posturing of a discredited president.
It is the alleged 2004 election rigging that’s used to assault legitimacy of her governance. And freeing Mr. Estrada cannot call off opposition dogs that keep yapping at Malacañang about election stealing and corruption. From his San Juan home, he might even help plot worse mischief against the Palace.
Mr. Estrada can provide check-and-balance on the Arroyo government, a pro-pardon argument says. What do they think has he been doing all along? Now, Mr. Estrada will even have vaster opportunities for fiscalizing — and, if he chooses, destabilizing.
Bleak message
Which raises another pardon prop: his promise not to seek elective office. Mr. Estrada can very well say in 2007: “Well, I lied. You broke a promise not to run, why can’t I?” Not being a condition to the pardon, any law student knows, the promise though publicly made doesn’t bind him.
Pardon can be validly given: no question about the President’s right. But the pardon is wrong and wrongly timed. Worse, it firms up suspicions the President is using it to distract the public from the scams and scandals and to help her beleaguered reign survive.
Worse, it sends the bleak message: The government cannot punish big fish, and predators on public funds can go on with no fear of retribution. [Sun.Star Cebu]
