Press Secretary and acting Executive Secretary Ignacio Bunye announced Thursday that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has issued an executive clemency for former president Joseph Estrada.
Estrada was convicted last month by the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan for plunder charges. Estrada was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Early this week, Estrada, through his lawyers, asked for pardon from President Arroyo.
From bit-part roles, Estrada eventually made his mark playing Robin Hood-type characters
who battled greedy landowners, vicious gangsters, corrupt policemen or crooked politicians.
In 1969, Estrada first translated his celluloid fame into political power when he was elected mayor of his home town of San Juan in the Manila suburbs.
From there, he rose to senator, then vice president and finally, in 1998, he was elected president, running on the slogan "Erap for the Poor."
His victory, the largest majority vote in Philippine presidential history, came despite the opposition of veteran political leaders, the educated classes and the dominant Roman Catholic Church.
Estrada never hid his vices, openly keeping several mistresses despite being married to Luisa, a doctor, for more than 40 years.
His self-deprecating humour endeared him to the masses, who identified closely with Estrada's foibles. In campaign rallies, he joked that "of the many women I have loved, I only married one."
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