Erap says Arroyo did no wrong

Take it from Joseph Estrada. Like him, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did no wrong.

Both were former Presidents. Estrada is now Manila mayor, Arroyo a Pampanga representative.

Both were detained for plunder—he in his rest house, she in a hospital.

He was pardoned, by Arroyo, after he was convicted; she was ordered freed by the Supreme Court.

“I am happy that she has been freed because it has been proven that she did nothing wrong,” said Estrada, who talked to reporters during an operation to clear vendors occupying streets in Divisoria.

Estrada said what happened to Arroyo had happened to him.

“It was too much,” he said.

“Our former President (Corazon) Aquino said sorry, the  Church said sorry because of what they did to me. They did not prove anything, that I stole,” the mayor said, referring to the key players in the second Edsa revolution that overthrew his government in 2001.

The mayor denied he had been impeached as President, adding that the “coup d’etat,” apparently referring to Edsa II, was “illegal.”

“All the contracts I signed, they looked at them. All the lawyers looked at the contracts I signed, they weren’t able to prove anything, not even a contract,” said Estrada, who was replaced by Arroyo, his then Vice President.

Asked if he believed Arroyo’s prolonged detention was a “political move,” the mayor said, “Most probably.”

“That’s just how it is. Because it has been proven that she did not do anything wrong. It’s a good thing she has been released already,” Estrada said.

Voting 11-4, the Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the plunder charge filed in 2012 against the 69-year-old Arroyo. The charge stemmed from the alleged misuse of  P366 million of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office funds meant for charity.

As of late Wednesday, Arroyo, who is suffering from degenerative problem in her cervical spine, remained under hospital arrest at Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City, awaiting release papers from the courts.

Estrada, 79, who assumed the presidency in 1998, allegedly received P545-million protection money from “jueteng” operators and a P189.7-million kickback from a Belle Corp. stock transaction. He supposedly owned the P3.23-billion “Jose Velarde” bank account. He was convicted in 2007 and was sentenced to life imprisonment, but was pardoned by Arroyo.

Sen. Richard Gordon on Wednesday slammed the Ombudsman for “poor lawyering” in a case that had kept Arroyo under hospital arrest for four years.

“Sometimes you wonder whether these cases are prepared very well, because it is the high court saying it lacks evidence,” he said. “Now that she’s acquitted, where did all the years go?” said Gordon, who had served as Arroyo’s tourism secretary.

Sen. Nancy Binay, whose father, former Vice President Jejomar Binay, is himself facing  trial for graft, said she respected the court ruling.

“At this point, she may now get treatment, and I hope she will be healed completely of her illness,” Binay said. Arroyo is having severe neck problems. With reports from Tarra Quismundo and Estrella Torres