MANILA, Philippines -- Citing “the highest national interest,” convicted plunderer and former President Joseph Estrada Monday asked President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for “full, free and unconditional pardon” as he withdrew his appeal of the Sandiganbayan’s verdict last month.

The move elated Ms Arroyo, who immediately ordered the Department of Justice to “make the necessary recommendations” to her as soon as possible, acting Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera told reporters in Malacañang.

But Devanadera declined to comment on whether Ms Arroyo would pardon the ousted leader.

Estrada, who received a life sentence for illegally amassing P545 million in “jueteng” (illegal numbers game) payoffs during his 30 months in power, sent a letter to Ms Arroyo through his lawyer, Devanadera said.

“In the highest national interest, to which President Estrada is always willing to subordinate his own, we appeal to Your Excellency to grant him full, free and unconditional pardon,” read the three-page letter dated Oct. 22.

The letter, signed by Estrada’s lead counsel Jose Flaminiano and received by Devanadera at 4 p.m., informed Ms Arroyo that “they had withdrawn their motion for reconsideration.”

Flaminiano was referring to the appeal lodged by Estrada in the Sandiganbayan on Sept. 26 to reverse the guilty verdict it handed down on Sept. 12.

‘Wisdom of lawyers’

Estrada on Monday said he “bowed to the wisdom of his lawyers” to seek presidential pardon during a half-hour meeting at his Polk Street residence in San Juan City on Saturday, a day after the Sandiganbayan heard his motion for reconsideration.

“I realized I really don’t stand a chance with the justice system that we have … so I bowed to the wisdom of my lawyers,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) in a phone interview from his rest house in Tanay, Rizal, where he has been under house arrest since 2004.

But Estrada made it clear that it wasn’t he who wrote the letter to Ms Arroyo but his lawyers.

A petition withdrawing the motion for reconsideration and supplemental motion for reconsideration and waiving Estrada’s rights to appeal was filed a few minutes before the anti-graft court closed Monday afternoon.

‘Sharply wounded nation’

Explaining the unexpected move, Flaminiano said Estrada’s camp believed it was time to move forward and heal the “sharply wounded nation.”

“The nation is divided because of this issue. What we need is a start of a healing process in the midst of poverty and terrorism,” the lawyer told the Inquirer.

Though he personally believed that strong grounds urging the Sandiganbayan to overturn its verdict were raised, legal luminaries had advised that a reversal would be difficult, Flaminiano said.

“Our consensus is that there is a very slim chance that the Sandiganbayan will reconsider its original guilty verdict,” Estrada’s defense lawyers said in the letter.

They said Estrada’s imminent transfer from his Tanay estate to the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa City “may generate bad feelings on the part of many of our countrymen which may boil over again.”

“Passions on both sides would be aroused. A period of prolonged fault-finding and recrimination would be disastrous for the nation. Our republic needs recovery, not revenge,” the letter said.

SC appeal

Flaminiano added that an appeal before the Supreme Court might take 10 years to resolve, considering that the high tribunal had other “equally important” cases to attend to.

Devanadera said Malacañang had instructed her to process the application for pardon.

“It has been handed to me with the instruction from the acting executive secretary (Ignacio Bunye) for the Department of Justice to process and to make the necessary recommendation as soon as possible,” she said.

“We shall be submitting to the President the recommendation of the DOJ within this week. The exercise of whether or not the pardon will be granted is solely the discretion of the President,” Devanadera said, stressing that she had yet to see the attachments.

Final decision

Executive clemency, she said, could not be exercised “unless there is a finality” in the Sandiganbayan decision.

“But with the withdrawal, it appears that there will already be a finality,” Devanadera said.

“At first, I did not agree with the move, I wanted to stand by my earlier decision,” Estrada admitted.

Aside from his systematic collection of jueteng payoffs, Estrada was also found to have received a P189-million commission from the purchase of Belle Corp. shares, using state pension funds.

The Sandigan sentenced him to up to 40 years imprisonment “with corresponding accessory penalties,” such as forfeiture of his assets and properties derived from illegal sources during his truncated regime.

Estrada’s lawyers had been optimistic that the court would grant their motion for reconsideration after Friday’s oral arguments. The amended information, they argued, failed to establish a link that would bind the two offenses for which the former President was convicted.

Different tune

Three days after, the defense lawyers were singing a different tune. Estrada Monday said the more than six years incarceration he endured was enough for him and there were many things waiting for him outside.

“I can do something more for the country [if I am free]. I will continue fighting for the rights of the people. Nobody can stop me,” said the 70-year-old convict.

Most importantly, Estrada said, he would be able to spend longer hours with his ailing 102-year-old mother, Mary Ejercito, at the San Juan Medical Center without asking the court each time.

“I would like to be with her in the last few days or months of her life,” he said.

Devanadera said there was no need to meet with Flaminiano or any of Estrada’s defense lawyers “for as long as they have all the documentary requirements submitted” to the DOJ.

Ms Arroyo was inspecting the security measures being implemented at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport early afternoon when she was informed of Estrada’s letter, the acting secretary said.

The President was visibly happy, she added. With reports from Reuters, Associated Press