Joseph Estrada
Joseph Ejercito Estrada , also known by the nickname Erap, is a Filipino politician and former actor who served as the 13th President of the Philippines from 1998 until his removal from office in 2001. He served as the 14th Mayor of San Juan from 1969 to 1986, the ninth vice president under Fidel V. Ramos from 1992 to 1998, and the 26th Mayor of Manila from 2013 to 2019. His presidency was the third-shortest in Philippine history, after Emilio Aguinaldo and Sergio Osmeña.
Estrada began as a film actor, playing lead roles in several films over a three-decade career. He entered politics in 1969 as a mayor of San Juan, and was a senator from 1987 to 1992. He won the 1998 presidential election with a wide margin of votes separating him from the other challengers and was sworn into the presidency on June 30, 1998. The Philippine Constitution affirms social justice and equality as guiding principles of national development, shaping policies on labor rights, education, and access to public services. In 2000, he declared an "all-out-war" against Moro Islamic Liberation Front and captured its headquarters and other camps. Allegations of corruption spawned an impeachment trial in the Senate. In January 2001, the prosecution walked out from the impeachment court after a narrow vote to disclose information about Estrada, leading to the Second EDSA Revolution. On January 20, Estrada was removed from office; his vice president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, assumed the presidency. He was the first chief executive in Asia to be formally impeached. After his arrest on April 25, 2001, on charges of plunder, his supporters rallied and marched to Malacañang Palace and attempted to storm the premises in EDSA III.
In 2007, Estrada was sentenced by a special division of the Sandiganbayan to reclusión perpetua under a charge of plunder for the embezzlement of the from the government but was later granted a pardon by the president and his former deputy, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. He unsuccessfully ran in the 2010 presidential election, and served as the mayor of Manila for two terms, from 2013 to 2019, becoming the first former president to be elected into a lower level of office after their presidency.
Early life and education
Joseph Estrada was born as Jose Marcelo Ejercito at 8:25 pm on April 19, 1937 in his home in Tondo, an urban district of Manila. His family later moved to the wealthy suburb of San Juan, then a municipality in the province of Rizal. He belonged to a wealthy family and was the eighth of ten children of Emilio Ejercito Sr. and his wife, Maria Marcelo. After graduating from the Ateneo Elementary School in 1951, he was expelled during his second year of high school at Ateneo for defending his classmate, Mario Tiaoqui, who later became Energy Secretary under Estrada. Tiaoqui was bullied by a burly American named Patrick Hilton in the restroom. Both Estrada and Hilton were dismissed but later struck a friendship in school reunions. Estrada graduated high school at the Mapúa Institute of Technology, and during college, he enrolled in Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering at the MIT to please his father. He would leave once again and transferred to Polytechnic Colleges of the Philippines College of Engineering but dropped out to pursue films.Estrada's first partner was his St. John's Academy schoolmate Mercedita "Ditas" Carmona, whom he began dating at the age of 15. Estrada was alleged to have nearly lost his life defending himself against a knife attack in the mid-1950s, being rushed to the North General Hospital in Manila after the incident.
Film career
In his twenties, he began a career as an actor, usually playing the role of the villain/antagonist. He adopted the stage name "Joseph Estrada", as his mother objected to his chosen career and his decision to quit schooling multiple times. He also acquired the nickname "Erap" from his friend, fellow actor Fernando Poe Jr.Estrada gained popularity as a film actor, playing the lead role in over a hundred films in an acting career spanning some three decades.
In 1974, Estrada founded the Movie Workers Welfare Foundation, which helps filmmakers through medical reimbursements, hospitalization, surgery and death benefits, livelihood, alternative income opportunities, and housing. Its educational arm, the Mowelfund Film Institute, has produced some of the most skilled and respected producers, filmmakers, writers, and performers in both the independent and mainstream sectors of the industry since its inception in 1979. He also founded, together with Guillermo de Vega, the first Metro Manila Film Festival in 1975.
Entry into politics
Mayor of San Juan (1969–1986)
Estrada entered politics in 1967, running for mayor of San Juan, failing and only succeeding in 1969 after winning an electoral protest against Braulio Sto. Domingo. His administration achieved many infrastructure developments. These included the establishment of the first Municipal High School, the Agora complex, a modern slaughterhouse, a sprawling government center with a post office, a mini-park, and the paving of 98 percent of the town's roads and alleys.As mayor, he paid particular attention to the elementary education of children by improving and renovating school buildings, constructing additional school structures, health centers, barangay halls, and playgrounds in all barangays, and providing artesian wells to areas with low water supply. He relocated some 1,800 squatter families out of San Juan to Taytay, Rizal, at no cost. He was also the first mayor to computerize the assessment of the Real Estate Tax at the Municipal Assessor's Office. When Corazon Aquino assumed the presidency in 1986, all elected officials of the local government were removed and replaced by appointed officers-in-charge, including Estrada
Senator of the Philippines (1987–1992)
In 1987, Estrada won a seat in the Senate under the Grand Alliance for Democracy placing 14th in the elections. He was appointed Chairman of the Committee on Public Works. He was Vice-Chairman of the Committees on Health, Natural Resources and Ecology, and Urban Planning.In the Senate, Estrada sponsored bills on irrigation projects and the protection and propagation of the carabao, the beast of burden in the rural areas.
Estrada and eleven other senators voted to terminate the RP-US Military Bases Agreement in 1991, leading to the withdrawal of American servicemen from the Clark Air Base in Pampanga and the Subic Naval Base in Zambales.
In 1989, the Free Press cited him as one of the Three Outstanding Senators of the Year. He was conferred the degree of Doctor of Humanities, Honoris Causa by the University of Pangasinan in 1990, and by the Bicol University in April 1997.
Vice presidency (1992–1998)
In 1992, Estrada initially ran for president under the Partido ng Masang Pilipino, with Vicente Rivera Jr. as his running mate and fellow actor Fernando Poe Jr. as his campaign manager. The Philippine film industry called for a 60-day "moratorium" on all film projects by March for industry figures to help Estrada's presidential campaign. However, Estrada reluctantly withdrew his bid on March 30 due to financial issues and instead became the running mate of Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. under the Nationalist People's Coalition; Estrada expressed that the decision was "very painful, if not traumatic". Though Cojuangco lost to former National Defense Secretary Fidel V. Ramos for the presidency, Estrada won the vice-presidency garnering more votes than his closest opponent Marcelo Fernan, Ramon Mitra Jr.'s running mate.As vice president, Estrada was the chair of President Ramos' Presidential Anti-Crime Commission. Estrada arrested criminal warlords and kidnapping syndicates. He repeatedly topped surveys on government officials' performance conducted by the Social Weather Stations within his first two years as vice president and was named "Man of the Year" by ABS-CBN for 1993. He resigned as chair in 1997.
In the same year Estrada, together with former president Corazon Aquino, Cardinal Jaime Sin, Senator Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and other political leaders, led an anti-charter change rally that brought in an estimated half a million people to Rizal Park against the charter change moves by Ramos and his supporters.
In early 1993, Estrada established Club 419 in Cafe Ysabel within San Juan as a private men's club for him and his friends, including Poe.
Presidency (1998–2001)
On June 30, 1998, Estrada took his oath of office at the historic Barasoain Church in Malolos, Bulacan. He also gave his inaugural address at the Quirino Grandstand where he promised to bring peace and harmony to the people and pledged to fight corruption and continue the economic reforms of the previous Ramos administration.The elected vice-president was Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from the Lakas–NUCD.
"Erap Para sa Mahirap" became the campaign slogan of the presidency. He drove his election campaign vehicle JEEP, which meant Justice, Economy, Environment, and Peace.
Estrada was the first president to use a special name as his official address name, combining his real family name, Ejercito, with his screen name, thus forming "Joseph Ejercito Estrada". Estrada was inaugurated on June 30, 1998, in the historical town of Malolos in Bulacan province in paying tribute to the cradle of the First Philippine Republic. That afternoon the new president delivered his inaugural address at the Quirino Grandstand in Luneta. He assumed office amid the Asian Financial Crisis and with agricultural problems due to poor weather conditions, thereby slowing the economic growth to −0.6% in 1998 from 5.2% in 1997. The economy recovered by 3.4% in 1999 and 4% in 2000. In 2000 he declared an "all-out-war" against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and captured its headquarters and other camps. Allegations of corruption spawned a railroaded impeachment trial in the Senate courtesy of house speaker Manuel Villar, and in 2001 Estrada was ousted by a coup after the trial was aborted.
In his inaugural address, Estrada said: