The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. She gets the award for the following.

MANILA: President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines has pardoned former president Joseph Estrada, who was convicted last month of corruption charges, her spokesman said on Thursday.

The spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, said at a news conference that the executive clemency is in line with the government's policy to release inmates who are aged 70 years and older.

Bunye said Arroyo had signed the presidential pardon taking into consideration that Estrada, who is 70 and was sentenced by an anti-graft court to a maximum of 40 years in prison for plunder, had already spent the past six and a half years under house arrest and that he had publicly pledged that he would "no longer seek any elective position or office."

The pardon also restores Estrada's civil and political rights, although the court's orders that he forfeit a mansion and more than $15.5 million he allegedly stole while in office "remain in force and in full," Bunye said.

Estrada deserves to spend the rest of his life rotting in jail. His being pardoned is a joke but pretty much politics as usual in the Philippines. Philippines leaders plunder the country's treasury while most of the population lives in poverty. Then the same leaders have the temerity to criticize tax evaders. We need more money is the message being sent.

Arroyo, a former Knucklehead winner, is probably hoping she'll get a similar pardon if ever tried and convicted after leaving office. She is as crooked as Estrada, but more brazen. Read about this recent scandal.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is today's Knucklehead of the Day.

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