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Sunday, October 28, 2007
Admin role for Estrada?
CEBU CITY -- After he promised to support efforts of the Arroyo administration to fight poverty, a government post that deals with anti-poverty programs may be in store for deposed president Joseph Estrada.
Malacanang's pardon order
Post comments here on President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's grant of pardon to former President Joseph Estrada.
Presidential Management Staff (PMS) Chief Cerge Remonde hinted at this Saturday, when he said that such a move will speed up national unity and progress.
“I don’t see why that is not possible, especially after he said he would dedicate his freedom to helping in anti-poverty programs,” Remonde said in an interview over dzXL radio.
Presidential spokesman and Acting Executive Secretary Ignacio Bunye said Estrada’s endorsement of the government’s programs can accelerate the progress of these efforts.
“As to specifics, we don’t have information for now. But Estrada’s offer to help us in our anti-poverty programs is definitely a very welcome statement,” Bunye said on government-run dzRB radio.
President Arroyo’s decision to pardon Estrada continued to provoke debate, but at least two of her House allies in Cebu spoke up in support of her move.
Arroyo was prudent and fully aware of her action when she pardoned former president Joseph Estrada, Representative Eduardo Gullas said.
It was the right thing to do, Representative Benhur Salimbangon also said, even as some cause-oriented groups and other sectors criticized the President for freeing Estrada only six weeks after he was found guilty of plunder.
Gullas, Arroyo’s political ally, is hoping that the country can move forward without seeing Estrada’s supporters staging anti-Arroyo protests.
“I’ve known her for some time and I’m sure she has deliberately studied the pros and cons of her action,” said Gullas (Cebu Province, 1st district).
Too hasty
In a separate interview, Salimbangon (Cebu, 4th district) said what Arroyo did was for peace and reconciliation.
“If the camps of Estrada and Arroyo will work together, maybe there will be better administration,” he said.
But former Cebu governor Vicente de la Serna said Arroyo’s granting of pardon to Estrada was “hasty.”
De la Serna told radio dyLA Saturday that Estrada did not admit to committing plunder or show any remorse so he did not deserve the pardon.
Malacañang does not see it that way, though.
Despite his ouster in 2001 and a six-and-a-half-year detention, Estrada remains popular with the masses.
“Estrada’s help is a major boost. If, say, we’re running at 50 kph, we can go as fast as 75 kph,” Bunye said.
Estrada was welcomed in San Juan City Friday night after his release from detention.
Cardinal’s role
Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal had signed a letter, along with two other political leaders, appealing to the President to extend “full, free, and absolute pardon” to Estrada.
Dated Sept. 16, the letter said that human consideration and the “spirit of reconciliation” moved the prelate, Senate President Manuel Villar and House Speaker Jose de Venecia to urge for a presidential pardon for Estrada.
While Estrada was sentenced to up to 40 years of imprisonment and disqualification from public office, he was put under house arrest in his Tanay, Rizal rest house until his release last Friday.
In seeking pardon, the former president withdrew his motion for reconsideration with the Sandiganbayan, saying he does not stand a chance of acquittal in the courts.
But several groups opposed the presidential pardon, saying it was a political accommodation.
For its part, the justice department said it is ready to defend the pardon all the way to the Supreme Court.
Closure
“Many of those in the Justice Department feel this is a closure to a chapter in our nation’s history,” Acting Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said in an interview on dzBB radio.
Chief Justice Reynato Puno was in Cebu Saturday, but the country’s third highest official steered clear from any current issues despite prodding from members of the media.
Puno did not talk about the executive clemency both in ambush interviews and in his keynote address during the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship International at the Cebu International Convention Center Saturday night.
He instead spoke of the need for spiritual renewal among people. A Methodist, the chief justice said he would rather be seen as the “Lord’s chief servant.”
“Only with God can man deny victory to the spirit that corrupts,” Puno said.
He echoed the group’s call for a revolution of righteousness, adding that true revolution “is not a fight in the streets but a fight in the hearts of men.”
Earlier, Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa Ignacio said they will question the presidential pardon before the High Court for grave abuse of discretion.
Off-guard
Other groups are also taking action against the President’s move.
Freedom from Debt Coalition secretary-general Lito Vasquez said he will invite other groups that are former members of Barug Sugbo to join a series of indignation rallies every Friday and to wear black arm bands, just like what the Black and White Movement is doing in Manila.
Vasquez said they were so stunned by the President’s pronouncement that they were not able to express their disgust at her decision.
“It is an ideal move to immediately launch a protest. The development was fast, the groups were caught off-guard,” Vasquez said over dyLA.
Former Integrated Bar of the Philippines Cebu City chapter president Democrito Barcenas, who admitted voting for Estrada in the 2001 elections and supporting him in the past, said Estrada should have at least served part of his sentence of life imprisonment for plunder.
Barcenas said the pardon was a diversionary tactic as President Arroyo lost the trust and confidence of her allies, with allegations of bribery hounding her administration. He added that the President needs another group to prop up her government.
‘Correct’
But Gullas, a veteran Cebuano lawmaker, finds Arroyo’s decision of granting pardon to Estrada as “constitutionally and politically correct.”
He pointed out that the 1935, 1973 and 1987 Philippine Constitutions grant the President the power to grant executive clemency.
The Constitution only mandates that the judgment of conviction is final.
Malacañang said Saturday that a move to question the pardon granted to Estrada is the “prerogative” of the prosecution.
“From our end, every Filipino knows that the rule of law has been upheld and justice has been served. No one is above the law when it comes to meting out punishment, including former presidents,” Bunye said in a statement sent to Palace reporters. (GC/MBG/KNR/(Sunnex)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. (October 27, 2007 issue)
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