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Pardon me!

The executive clemency given to convicted plunderer former Philippines President Erap Estrada has had op ed and blog writers airing their opinions.

The grant of pardon is a prerogrative of the Sovereign as the fount of mercy. Kings and Queens have used this right rather sparingly. In a republic the people is sovereign but they are represented by the President who is supposed to represent the will of the people.

Obviously our own Gloriana being the Queen of the State of the Nation got her cue from the First Gloriana who defeated the Armada, and is known as the Virgin Queen, who was never insecure (having inherited Henry VIII's bravado and good pragmatic sense) and gave pardons to her subjects but not to her treasonous lover, the Earl of Essex.

While the nobles expected Gloriana to pardon Essex, she stiffened her resolved and signed his death warrant!

Gloriana wanted to show to her subjects that she was a wise ruler as she faced the end of her reign.

The Queen's reign ends with her death. She wasn't bothered to save her ___ at the end. After all she knew that she will be considered as England's greatest Queen.

Our own Gloriana of course will be alive when her reign ends in 2010. And of course she has a lot of things to worry about. Unlike the first Gloriana, she doesn't want to be remembered as our Greatest President.

And this is what the public views as the reason why he gave her nemesis the pardon. She has to save her __.

Our own Gloriana wanted to show her subjects how to save one's own ____. Never mind public opinion. While people may have supported a pardon, the circumstances of the grant of clemency and the haste leaves a mockery of the justice system and the sovereignty of the people.

The difference is so clear

That's why many still in Britain would prefer the Monarchy over an elected Presidency.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Good God!

Hate to disagree with you but I do believe if there was one thing that Elizabeth Regina I inherited from her father was her sexual appetite but apart from that, everything else was Elizabeth's own - not even bravado.

Henry VIII was one scoundrel king who had no foresight whatsoever. He was a braggart, that I must concede. He was really quite a coward!
Ben Vallejo said…
We are talking about giving pardons here and not the sexual appetite of the Queen or President! But then again her signing of Essex's death warrant is due obviously that she did not get what she desired! Of course such would be fodder for salacious stories.

As for Henry VIII, I would not consider his break from Rome as lacking foresight and a sign of cowardice at all.

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