Estrada pardon signals Arroyo's
weakness By Aries Rufo
MANILA - A month and a half after being
convicted by an anti-graft court to life in prison
for accepting US$81 million worth of bribes and
kickbacks while in office, deposed Philippine
president Joseph Estrada walked a free man on
Friday without spending a single day in prison.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said she
decided to grant the executive clemency in
deference to the millions of Filipinos who
continue to identify themselves with the deposed
leader. "We are using the law, for what I see in
my best light, as good for the
greatest number," Arroyo
said, in a speech before the Philippine Business
Conference in announcing the decision.
The
pardon - which restores Estrada's political and
civil liberties after serving years under house
arrest - has already stoked storms of protest from
the lawyers who prosecuted his case. They branded
the move as "the height of disloyalty and betrayal
of public trust" and special prosecutor Dennis
Villa-Ignacio wrote to the Justice Department to
block the pardon.
Civil society groups,
anti-crime crusaders and militant organizations
that only a month ago had celebrated the triumph
of law over power, were similarly outraged.
Militant groups like Akbayan denounced the pardon
as yet another betrayal of the gains of EDSA 2,
referring to the people power uprising in 2001
that brought down the Estrada presidency.
After six years of trial, Estrada was
found guilty of economic plunder on September 12
in a verdict widely hailed as an important legal
milestone in the country's ongoing and often
in-vain battle against official graft and
corruption. Although the landmark conviction was
generally anticipated, in part because his
acquittal would have raised prickly political
questions about Arroyo's own legitimacy, Estrada
was the first Philippine president to be impeached
and convicted for graft.
So why then did
the politically embattled Arroyo take the
controversial decision, one that some political
analysts predict could hasten the demise of her
own administration? She reportedly agonized over
the decision, which Estrada's still strong
grass-roots supporters had clamored for ever since
the guilty verdict was handed down. Adding to the
agony was the anti-graft court's adroit handling
of the case, with few even among Estrada's diehard
supporters complaining about the integrity of the
judicial process.
But while the conviction
proved that the justice system works and is able
to withstand outside political pressure, the same
cannot be said for the political branch, which
under Arroyo's watch has developed a habit of
self-flagellation. Estrada's pardon was set
against the backdrop of worsening political
instability, and many political observers viewed
her controversial decision as a gambit to buy
precious political time.
"It was to cover
up the bad news unraveling in her government,"
says opposition political analyst Angelito Banayo,
referring to the presidential pardon. Banayo, who
served as a consultant for presidential candidate
and now senator Panfilo Lacson, contends that
Arroyo needed a news diversion from the growing
attacks on her administration that in recent weeks
have dominated national headlines.
Scandal-plagued Most
significantly, Arroyo and her husband Miguel
Arroyo have been linked to corruption allegations
linked to a controversial $329 million broadband
communications contract with a Chinese company,
Shenzhen-based ZTE Corp, which has already claimed
one political casualty: the resignation of poll
chairman Benjamin Abalos.
The mounting
controversy over the government deal is
threatening to sever her political alliance with
House speaker Jose de Venecia, who was her saving
grace in a previous impeachment attempt launched
by the opposition in Congress. Underscoring the
shift against her government, de Venecia's son has
publicly alleged the first couple's share of
commissions from the project to be to the tune of
$70 million. Arroyo and her husband have denied
the allegations.
Yet they have also been
hounded by allegations that they have attempted to
pay off lawmakers and local officials to block
another impeachment attempt by the congressional
opposition. Arroyo's government is the first ever
to face an impeachment complaint three years in a
row.
"[The] pardon of former president
Estrada is meant to appease his camp, to score
political points and ensure her own political
survival," says Senator Francis Pangilinan, who
ran as an independent in the May midterm polls.
"Her administration now faces one of the most
serious challenges to her presidency with the
string of corruption and bribery scandals
threatening to bring her government down. It
appears that [the pardon] is a plain and simple
maneuver to remain afloat."
But because
her government is negotiating from a position of
weakness, it's not clear the conciliatory move
will be enough to win over Estrada's supporters in
Congress or at the grass-roots. According to
recent polls, despite the ruling against him,
Estrada still enjoyed the support of about 30% of
the electorate.
"To these masses, the
granting of the pardon was just a matter of
justice - no matter how misplaced," Banayo
observes. Other political analysts contend the
pardon will now totally alienate the pro-reform
civil society groups that until now had remained
loyal to Arroyo's government. Despite his
downfall, according to recent polls, Estrada
continues to enjoy the support of 30% of the
electorate.
Former president Fidel Ramos,
who crucially came to Arroyo's defense at the
height of the mass resignation of her cabinet
following a wiretapping scandal two years ago
where she was caught talking about election
results with a poll commissioner before official
tallies had been released, has warned she could
suffer the same fate that befell Estrada for
granting the pardon. Ramos said the pardon was "a
terrible, terrible calamity to the great, great
majority of the Filipino people who have suffered
from the plunder".
A former armed forces
chief of staff and military hero of the 1986
people's power movement that unseated dictator
Ferdinand Marcos, Ramos is also credited with
pulling the military's support from Estrada in
2001, a move that contributed largely to his
political demise.
Yet there is still some
hope for the survival of Arroyo's beleaguered and
increasingly isolated administration. The pardon
document specifically bars Estrada from running
for public office, a condition Estrada
acknowledged when he faced his throng of
supporters in San Juan after the announcement of
his pardon.
He also for the first time
referred to Arroyo as "president". The conditional
pardon aims to eliminate the charismatic and
popular Estrada as a future rival when Arroyo runs
for reelection in 2010. Whether she's still around
to enforce that clause and contest the next polls,
however, is less than certain.
Aries
Rufo is a political reporter for Manila-based
Newsbreak.
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