Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said that Joseph Estrada, guilty of embezzling $77 million, was freed under the current administration's policy to release prisoners who have reached the age of 70, and the fact that had already spent six and a half years in detention was also taken into consideration.
"I hereby grant executive clemency to Joseph Ejercito Estrada, convicted by the Sandiganbayan of plunder and imposed a penalty of reclusion perpetual," Arroyo said in her order.
Though after the pardon comes into force, Estrada's civil and political rights will be fully restored, he has publicly committed not to pursue any political office.
The court confiscated $87 million dollars from his accounts, the money said to have been àmassed from payoffs from illegal gambling, kickbacks from tobacco tax and bribes, but Estrada's bank accounts held before his election to president will be returned to him.
The pardon will come into force on Friday. The ex-president has been under house arrest since 2004 at his residence near the capital Manila.
Estrada won the 1998 presidential elections by the widest margin in the country's history, but was ousted during mass protests in January 2001, supported by the country's army and the church.
