Malacanang expressed hope on Friday that former President and Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada would recover from pneumonia.

According to his son, Senator JV Ejercito, the 79-year Estrada has been admitted at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan since Wednesday.

Radio station dzMM said Estrada was recovering from doctors want him to

"The Palace wishes the speedy and full recovery of former President and Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada," Presidential Communications Office Secretary Martin Andanar said in a statement.

Andanar noted that as mayor of Manila, the country's capital and premier city, Estrada regained its "lost glory."

"The National Competitiveness Council named it the most competitive city in the Philippines, " Andanar said.

Estrada is in his second term as mayor of Manila.

Estrada was president from 1998 to 2001 when a bloodless coup ousted him from office after prosecutors walked out of a Senate impeachment hearing when senator-judges refused to allow the opening of a second envelope that alleged contained evidence against him.

In 2007, Estrada was found by guilty of plunder by the Sandiganbayan but President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo granted him executive clemency later that year. Celerina Monte/DMS