Former President Joseph Estrada on Wednesday accepted the people’s verdict and congratulated Senator Benigno Aquino III on his proclamation as president-elect in a statement read by son Senate Protempore Jinggoy Estrada, bringing to a close one of the highly-questioned elections in the nation's electoral history that paled in the shadow of the “Hello Garci” tainted presidential polls of 2004.

He also said he will not file any electoral protest “despite tell-tale signs of electoral fraud anmanipulation, with so many questions and mysteries remaining unanswered and continuing to unravel.”

"I say this with a total acceptance of my own fate and not to diminish the victory of those who emerged as winners,” Estrada said in the statement read by son Jinggoy in a privilege speech.

Estrada’s stepping to the plate in congratulating Aquino in the spirit of public interest, and in accordance with the Constitutional process carried with it a unique element of freshness that hopefully will find the country long harshly-divided in the aftermath of the power-grab events of 2001, to finally emerge with one single voice of unity.

He, however, asked Aquino to address the urgency of reforms in the country’s electoral system as seen in the May 10 elections that left “many questions that continue to remain unanswered and many electoral mysteries that are slowly unraveling.”

The popular opposition leader asked Aquino to give electoral reforms a chance to preserve the sanctity of the ballot and return to the Filipino people their sovereignty.

“We owe it to the millions of our people who were disenfranchised and who wanted to believe in the sanctity of the May 10 elections, but in the end were deprived of their ultimate equalizer which is their right to vote,” Estrada said.

Those many unanswered questions, according to Estada, “have and will continue to cast a heavy cloud of doubt over the integrity of the May 10, 2010 in many fronts.”

Knowing that a revolving door of massive electoral fraud will forever haunt Philippine elections, the incoming government must face such serious issues that should immediately be addressed to serve as the main rung to unify the country, Estrada said.

The country came into shambles in the aftermath of the power-grab events of 2001, instigated by a giant television network together with big business groups who frowned on his anti-poor programs resulting in shaved revenues for their corporations, and a Catholic Church leader that forced him to go on official leave from the corridors of power.

The late former President Corazon Aquino, the young Aquino’s mother, shortly before she died has long since publicly apologized to Estrada for her participation in EDSA II, saying “we all commit mistakes, just please forgive me.”

In the same privilege speech of son Jinggoy that focused on his father’s statement, the elder Estrada asked the nation to unite and rally behind Aquino “beyond the demands of partisan politics and party loyalists and under whose leadership the country now looks into the future with the of hope that he serve the country faithfully and honorably.”

Estrada also mentioned in his statement that he decided to seek for the presidency again to show the millions of people who elected him President and who felt they were robbed of that mandate, “and that by running again for the presidency, I would be showing them that I had not forgotten nor abandoned them.”

“Our people expect self-sacrifice from all they look up to as real leaders who are able to rise above personal hurts, disappointments, and the pain of injustice,” Estrada.

At the same time, he asked Aquino to keep good his campaign promise to address the problems of government neglect and official corruption that saw millions of Filipinos being constantly added to the rising number of poor families living way below the poverty line.

In the same statement, Estrada said that the incoming administration brings a new landmark in the country’s history while expressing optimism that it brings with it a closure to the reign of greed and corruption that has made the Philippines among the most corrupt governments in the world.

Estrada thanked his millions of friends and admirers for their endless support as he assured he will never abandon them even in whatever capacity as a private citizen.