The Kabataang Liberal ng Pilipinas (KALIPI) hails the decision of the Sandiganbayan Special Court that finds former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada guilty beyond reason of a doubt of the crime of plunder.

As one of the organizations closely involved in the Resign-Impeach-Oust (RIO) Initiatives leading to the Second People Power in 2001, the verdict of the Sandiganbayan comes as a vindication. This decision by the country’s anti-graft court only shows that, despite its unpopularity then, KALIPI and its fellow organizations involved in the RIO were in the right to demand accountability from Mr. Estrada.

As a liberal democratic organization, we welcome this decision of the Sandiganbayan as proof that our justice system works. Despite the rhetoric of the Estrada camp, six years is a pretty long time to make one’s case, so to speak, in a trial of this magnitude. Both sides were given enough time to defend their positions and question the other side, and that, political as the issue may be, we in KALIPI believe that the verdict was reached based on the facts brought out in the six years of the case.

KALIPI congratulates the Prosecution team led by State Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio not only for a job well done but also for a duty rendered with the utmost diligence, commitment and excellence.

KALIPI also congratulates the magistrates of the Sandiganbayan Special Court – Presiding Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Associate Justice Francisco Villaruz Jr. and Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta – for upholding the rule of law, and keeping our faith in the justice system.

KALIPI offers its sympathies to former Pres. Estrada and his family, but insist that justice must be served. If they wish to contest the Sandiganbayan Special Court’s decision, then they are most certainly welcome to do so by way of Motion for Reconsideration and appeal to the Supreme Court.

It has been a long and often torturous road that brought the country to 12 September 2007. Aside from its historical precedence, the verdict on the Estrada trial has proven that, given a chance, our legal institutions do work and that the rule of law is always the best way to resolve crises of monumental import to the nation.