ith the stroke of a pen Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo may have not just pardoned convicted plunderer Joseph Estrada but also sealed her fate as a President sans a backbone. What took six and an half excruciating years to litigate along with an unprecedented display of political will by the Sandiganbayan vanished in a flash.

This has left Filipinos both inside but mostly outside the country, perplexed, bewildered and downright angry. Filipinos living in first-world countries in North America and Europe cannot comprehend why a convicted criminal, who would be thrown in jail if it happened in their country, gets to walk away scot-free less than a month after his conviction.

Suffice it to say that Justice Philippine-style is a rare bird. Not only does it work excruciatingly slow—when it does work at all, but in most cases, the odds are stacked in favor of the rich and powerful (“justice” and “fairness” are two terms that oftentimes do not go together in Philippine jurisprudence). So it was seen as an event of cosmic proportions when the Sandiganbayan handed down its guilty verdict against the former president—at long last the Philippines was moving out of its “banana republic” status.

But alas, the elation and hope felt by law-abiding Pinoys the world-over was soon dashed by this one act of our diminutive lady president who after the NBN and money handout debacles has proven to be small in her stature as a leader as well.

So like the Israelites of biblical times, the Filipinos continue to wait for the messianic leader who will pull the country out of the rut it’s in, and usher it into the realm of first-world prosperity. Let all just hope they don’t have to wait too long.