Estrada leaves Tanay a free man
Ousted President Joseph Estrada walked out a free man yesterday from his detention quarters in Tanay, Rizal.
“I am happy, I’m free again,” Estrada said after signing the release order from the Sandiganbayan. “There is no substitute for freedom.”
At the head of a convoy of police and government officials, Estrada left his Tanay resthouse for his hometown of
A few minutes before
In his speech, Estrada reiterated that he would no longer seek public office.
“Wala na akong balak pumasok sa maruming larangan ng pulitika (I have no plans of re-entering the dirty field of politics),” he said, adding that he would dedicate his remaining years to serving the Filipino people.
“Now I’m free to pursue my livelihood and scholarship programs,” he said.
Estrada said he might have committed mistakes as a public servant, but that corruption was not one of them.
“Kung nagkamali man ako, di kasama dito ang pagnanakaw sa pondo ng bayan (If I have made mistakes, stealing the country’s money is not one of them),” he said.
Before ending his speech, Estrada again thanked President Arroyo for granting him executive clemency, and urged his supporters to thank her as well.
After his speech, Estrada proceeded to the
“Now that I’m a free man, I would be able to visit her at the hospital without having to ask permission from the Sandiganbayan, and I can now stay and sleep with her in the hospital,” he said.
He can now attend to the needs of his mother since he is no longer in politics, Estrada said.
Orange ribbons, balloons and buntings and a “Welcome Home” streamer decorated the Estrada residence on
A steady stream of close friends and relatives such as former Cabinet secretaries and immediate family members awaited the arrival of Estrada. Among those eagerly waiting for Estrada was his 17-year-old son by former starlet Laarni Enriquez.
Jake Ejercito told reporters that he was very happy that his father was granted pardon by Mrs. Arroyo.
“I really didn’t know what to expect, kung dadalhin ba sa Munti si Daddy or whatsoever,” he said.
“First of all, I will tell him that I love him. Congratulate him. After six years of suffering, finally it’s over. I want to do a lot of things with him.”
Jake said he learned about the pardon last night from his mother, who was very happy.
“I’m sure that she’s very, very happy,” he said.
“She was the one who told me about it last night after it was announced in Malacañang. She said, ‘call your Dad, congratulate him.’ I remember she was crying.”
Jake is the second of Estrada’s three children by Enriquez.
He has an elder sister, Jerica, 22, who is studying in
At a thanksgiving Mass at the Estrada residence were his wife, former senator Loi Ejercito, daughter Jackie and her husband Beaver, daughter-in-law Precy Vitug-Estrada and her children.
Estrada’s former Cabinet secretaries Ricardo Puno, Jose Pardo, Bienvenido Laguesma, Gregorio Vigilar, Vicente Rivera, Alberto Romualdez and Horacio Morales were also on hand to welcome their former boss.
In a two-page order, Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Teresita Leonardo De Castro, special division chairwoman, and Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta and Godofredo Legaspi ordered Estrada freed after six and a half years of detention.
Sandiganbayan Sheriff Edgardo Urieta served the court’s order to Philippine National Police chief Director General Avelino Razon Jr., Estrada’s jailer, at around
A copy of Estrada’s pardon was flown by helicopter to the Sandiganbayan on
The helicopter flew from
Retirado arrived at the Sandiganbayan’s Sheriff’s Office 4:
De Castro, Peralta and Legaspi then deliberated before coming out with the order around
The one-page pardon document, dated
A letter of Bunye to De Castro was attached to the document.
In the order, De Castro noted the cancellation of a hearing set at
Instead, she ordered the issuance of a writ of execution for the satisfaction of portions of the judgment not covered by the executive clemency:
• The total amount of P545,291,000 with interest and income earned, inclusive of the amount of P200 million, deposited in the name and account of the Erap Muslim Youth Foundation;
• The amount of P189,700,000, inclusive of interests and income earned, deposited in the Jose Velarde account; and
• The real property consisting of a house and lot dubbed as “Boracay Mansion” located at No. 100 11th Street, New Manila, Quezon City.
A teary-eyed Estrada signed the document accepting the executive clemency in the presence of Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno, former Senate president Ernesto Maceda, nephew Pagsanjan Mayor E.R. Ejercito, defense lawyers Jay Flaminiano and Ed Serapio and Police Security and Protection Office director Chief Superintendent Romy Hilomen, and Interior Assistant Secretary Brian Yamsuan.
Yamsuan said Estrada, wearing a mint green jacket over a green polo shirt, was visibly emotional while reading the two-page pardon.
“They (Estrada and Puno) shook hands afterwards and tightly hugged each other,” he told The STAR.
Puno was also overwhelmed by emotion and cried while his former boss signed the document accepting the presidential pardon, he added.
He also cried upon seeing the two embrace each other like long lost brothers, Yamsuan said.
Puno delivered the pardon to Estrada a day after it was signed by President Arroyo.
On Mrs. Arroyo’s instructions, Puno flew to Estrada’s rest house in Tanay, Rizal on a helicopter from
Estrada, along with Puno and his group, stayed at the
While waiting, Estrada left the group and drove the golf cart that he has been using to move around the 16-hectare estate and proceeded to the presidential mausoleum at a hilltop.
Estrada sat at his favorite spot, a granite stone beside the presidential tomb, where he said he spends his prayer time and meditation.
From there, he went to his pond where he has hundreds of koi fish, ducks, geese and a collection of other exotic animals from peacocks to pink flamingo.
The construction of these new structures kept Estrada busy in the last two years of his detention in Tanay until he was finally freed yesterday.
Intermittent rains soaked well-wishers as well as members of the media who were kept outside the wooden gate of the rest house. The media were allowed inside the rest house only after the release order was finally delivered by Urrieta, who took a helicopter from Greenhills to Tanay.
Estrada changed to a red jacket over a pink polo shirt when he emerged before the media for the signing of his release order. Estrada signed the release order in the presence of Puno and Urrieta.
After signing the document, the left-handed Estrada stood up and shook hands, this time smiling and visibly happy to leave the place.
He saluted his security detail at Tanay before he boarded his SUV Lincoln Escalade for the two-hour ride to
Estrada thanked Mrs. Arroyo for granting him pardon and vowed to support her administration’s anti-poverty programs.
“I thank President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for granting me full, free and absolute pardon midway through her term,” Estrada said in a statement read by his lawyer Ed Serapio at the gates of his rest house.
Estrada said he is aware of the agonizing times and tough choices that Mrs. Arroyo has had to wade through before deciding to grant him pardon.
“I, too, have gone through such excruciating times before deciding to take on her longstanding peace overtures to the political opposition by withdrawing my motion for the Sandiganbayan to reverse its verdict on the charges against me,” read statement.
“But I believe that history will vindicate not only this executive action but my innocence as well with regard to these charges.”
Estrada said when he was President, he anchored his programs on winning the war against poverty and pursued policies meant for the greater good of the greatest number of people.
“The battle on this front has yet to be won, and I believe I can best continue to repay to our people the blessings that God has so graciously given me by supporting from hereon the programs of Mrs. Arroyo that are intended to attack generational poverty and hunger,” he said.
He wished to spend the rest of his life as “citizen Erap” and
to take care of his ailing mother, Estrada said. — Marichu Villanueva, James Mananghaya, Marvin Sy, Paolo Romero
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