Former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada
MANILA, Philippines – Former President Joseph Estrada was elated at the news that the sodomy case against his friend and former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was dismissed and said that the former official was “vindicated”.
“No other decision would have been acceptable in any real democracy. In any real democracy, the truth should set you free,” Estrada said.
The former president said that like himself, Anwar had been a victim of vicious politics. “The times are changing,” Estrada said. “I am very happy for Anwar. Now he can fully work towards the kind of democracy he dreams of for Malaysia.”
Estrada was president when Anwar was Deputy Prime Minister but Estrada was ousted from the presidency in 2001 while Anwar was sentenced in 1999 to six years in prison for corruption, and in 2000, to another nine years for sodomy.
In what some have termed “poetic justice”, Estrada’s successor, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, was arrested and now charged with electoral fraud.
“Now we are both vindicated,” Estrada said upon receiving the news on Anwar’s release today, Monday, while distributing relief goods for victims of Storm “Sendong” in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan in Mindanao.