Joseph Estrada
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Joseph Estrada
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| In office June 30, 1998 – January 20, 2001 |
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| Vice President | Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo |
| Preceded by | Fidel Ramos |
| Succeeded by | Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo |
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| In office June 30, 1992 – June 30, 1998 |
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| President | Fidel Ramos |
| Preceded by | Salvador Laurel |
| Succeeded by | Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo |
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| In office 1987 – 1992 |
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Mayor of San Juan
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| In office 1969 – 1986 |
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| Born | April 19, 1937 Manila, Philippines |
| Birth name | Jose Marcelo Ejercito |
| Nationality | Filipino |
| Political party | Partido ng Masang Pilipino |
| Spouse | Loi Estrada |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Signature |  |
Joseph "Erap" Ejercito Estrada (born April 19, 1937) served as the 13th President of the Philippines from 1998 until his ouster in the 2001 EDSA Revolution.
Estrada gained popularity as a film actor, playing the lead role in over 100 films in an acting career spanning 33 years. He leveraged his popularity as an actor to make gains in politics, serving as mayor of San Juan for seventeen years, as Senator for one term, then as as Vice President of the Philippines under the administration of President Fidel Ramos.
Estrada was elected President in 1998 with a wide margin of votes separating him from the other challengers, and was sworn into the presidency on June 30, 1998. However, allegations of corruption spawned an impeachment trial in the Senate, and in 2001 Estrada was ousted from power after the trial was aborted. In 2007, he was found guilty of plunder and sentenced to reclusion perpetua, but later granted a pardon by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
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[edit] Early life and career
Joseph Marcelo Ejercito was born on April 19, 1937 in Tondo, the poorest district of Manila. He belonged to an upper middle class family, and was the eighth of ten children of Emilio Ejercito, a government engineer, and his wife Maria Marcelo.[1] He studied at the Ateneo de Manila University, but was expelled in his sophomore year of high school for unruly behavior.[1] He went to Mapúa Institute of Technology to continue schooling with an engineering course, but dropped out from studies altogether two years later.
In his twenties, he began his a career as a film actor. He adopted the screen name "Joseph Estrada", as his father objected to his chosen career and his decision to quit schooling.[1] He also acquired the nickname "Erap" (a play on the Tagalog word "pare", meaning friend).
[edit] Film
He played the lead role in more than 100 movies, and was producer of over 70 films. He was the first FAMAS Hall of Fame awardee for Best Actor (1981) and also became a Hall of Fame award-winner as a producer (1983). He often played heroes of the downtrodden classes, which gained him the admiration of a lot of the nation's many unschooled and impoverished citizens. This later proved advantageous to his political career.
[edit] Politics
As an actor with no prior political experience, Estrada ran for mayor of San Juan, a municipality of Metro Manila, in 1968 and ended up losing his bid for mayor. He was only proclaimed mayor in 1969, after winning an electoral protest against Dr. Braulio Sto. Domingo.
When Corazon Aquino assumed the presidency in 1986, all officials of the local government suspected of malfeasance and anomalies were removed and replaced by appointed officers-in-charge. Estrada was then removed from his position as mayor. The following year, he ran and won a seat in the Senate under the Grand Alliance for Democracy (GAD). He placed 16th place in the said elections (out of 24 winners).
[edit] Vice-Presidency
He served as Vice President of the Philippines under Fidel V. Ramos from 1992–1998. President Ramos appointed him as the chairman of the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC). During his tenure as chairman of the PACC, he caught big time drug syndicates, murderers and other people committing crimes. He resigned as chairman of the PACC on 1997.
[edit] Presidency
The 1998 presidential election campaign, like most presidential election campaigns in the Philippines, had hardly anything to do with a contest between political platforms and programs. Estrada’s political strategists and financial backers were aware that a large share of the Philippine electorate, the "masa" (the poor and undereducated masses), were looking for a leadership they could relate to. Estrada’s financial backers designed a campaign strategy that reflected Estrada’s pro-poor image that he had built up throughout his movie career. Central in the campaign was Estrada’s campaign slogan "Erap para sa Mahirap" (Erap for the poor) that succeeded in inspiring the masses with the hope that Estrada would be the president of and for the masses. Estrada's running mate, Edgardo Angara, was defeated by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. During the campaign, Estrada's political rivals tried but failed to discredit him while publicizing his womanizing, drinking and gambling. Estrada was inaugurated on June 30, 1998 in the historical town of Malolos in Bulacan province.
[edit] Domestic Policies
Early into his presidency President Estrada removed all sovereign guarantees which means that the government is to assume the financial losses of private companies and private sectors that is doing business with the Philippine government. He also had a massive housing projects around the country (e.g. Iloilo and Taguig). Also during his term he controlled the hiking prices of transportation fair, food and medicine. When Estrada was Vice President, he was the chairman of the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC), he continued this work by establishing the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), this time Estrada also fired military and police officials who are corrupt. He also caught many big time syndicates, in the Philippines called the "Drug Lords", rapists, money launderers and other criminals commiting grave crimes like kidnapping. Panfilo Lacson was it's first head.
[edit] Corruption charges and impeachment
The Estrada presidency was soon dogged by charges of plunder and corruption. He was reported by his Chief of Staff Aprodicio Laquian to have allegedly spent long hours drinking with shady characters as well as "midnight drinking sessions" with some of his cabinet members during meetings. In October 2000, an acknowledged gambling racketeer, Luis "Chavit" Singson, governor of the province of Ilocos Sur, alleged that he had personally given Estrada the sum of 400 million pesos ($8,255,933) as payoff from illegal gambling profits, as well as 180 million pesos ($3,715,170) from the government price subsidy for the tobacco farmers' marketing cooperative. Singson's allegation caused an uproar across the nation, which culminated in Estrada's impeachment by the House of Representatives in November 13, 2000. The articles of impeachment were then transmitted to the Senate and an impeachment court was formed, with Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. as presiding officer.
Major television networks pre-empted their afternoon schedules to bring full coverage of the Impeachment Trial. There were three sets of cameras in the Impeachment Court (normally the Senate Chamber): one from ABS-CBN, one from the GMA Network, and one from NBN (Then, it was PTV, or the People's Television Network. (used as a pool camera).
During the trial, the prosecution (composed of congressmen and private prosecutors) presented witnesses and evidence to the impeachment court regarding Estrada's involvement in an illegal numbers game, also known as jueteng, and his maintenance of secret bank accounts. However, the president's legal team (composed of a former chief justice, former congressman, former solicitor-general and other lawyers) denied such allegations including his signing as Jose Velarde (which looked exactly like his signature as Joseph Estrada) duly witnessed by bank teller Marissa Ocampo.
Ilocos Sur Governor Chavit Singson was one of the witnesses who testified against President Estrada. The President and the governor of Ilocos Sur were said to be "partners" in-charge of the operations of illegal gambling in the country. Governor Singson feared that he would be charged and stripped of power (there have been talks about the governor making a deal with the opposition... he was to help incriminate Estrada and he would be compensated for his service), but he was offered immunity by anti-Estrada lawmakers. He was then asked to accuse the President of having committed several illegal acts. He gave personal accounts that may or may not have been biased.
[edit] EDSA II Revolution
On the evening of January 16, 2001, the impeachment court, whose majority were political allies of Estrada,[citation needed] voted not to open an envelope that was said to contain incriminating evidence against the president. The final vote was 11-10, in favor of keeping the envelope closed. The prosecution panel (of congressmen and lawyers) walked out of the Impeachment Court in protest of this vote. Others noted that the walkout merited a contempt of court which Davide, intentionally or unintentionally, did not enforce.[citation needed]
The afternoon schedule of television networks covering the Impeachment were pre-empted by the prolongation of the day's court session due to the issue of this envelope. The evening telenovelas of networks were pushed back for up to two hours.
That night, anti-Estrada protesters gathered in front of the EDSA Shrine at Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, not too far away from the site of the 1986 People Power Revolution that overthrew Ferdinand Marcos. A political turmoil ensued and the clamor for Estrada's resignation became stronger than ever. In the following days, the number of protesters grew to the hundreds of thousands.
On January 19, 2001, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, seeing the political upheaval throughout the country, decided to withdraw its support from the president and transfer its allegiance to the vice president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
On January 20, 2001, the Supreme Court declared that the seat of presidency was vacant. At noon, the Chief Justice swore in the constitutional successor, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, as President of the Philippines.[2] Estrada and his family were quickly evacuated from the presidential palace.
On January 18, 2008, Joseph Estrada's Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) caused full-page advertisement in Metro Manila newspapers, blaming EDSA 2 of having "inflicted a dent on Philippine democracy". Its featured clippings questioned the constitutionality of the revolution. The published featured clippings were taken from Time, New York Times, Straits Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Asia Times Online, The Economist, and International Herald Tribune. Supreme Court justice Cecilia Muñoz Palma opined that EDSA 2 violated the 1987 Constitution.[3]
[edit] Post-Presidency
Estrada returned to his old home in San Juan. He maintained that he never resigned, implying that Arroyo's government was illegitimate, despite the international community's recognition of Arroyo's succession and the acknowledgment of Arroyo as the new president by all government offices, the military, and the national police.
The new government charged him with plunder and had him arrested in April. Estrada's supporters, particularly those among the poor, marched to the EDSA Shrine demanding Estrada's release and his reinstatement as president, attempting to replicate the success of the previous revolution. On the morning of May 1, the protesters marched straight to the presidential palace. Violence erupted and the government declared a State of Rebellion. Many of Estrada's supporters were arrested, including politicians accused of provoking the violence. The government called out the military and was able to quell the rebellion. The rebellion came to be known as EDSA III.
Estrada was initially detained at the Veteran's Memorial Medical Center in Manila and then transferred to a military facility in Tanay, Rizal, but he was later transferred to a nearby vacation home, virtually in house arrest. He was still facing the charges of plunder and corruption. Under Philippine law, plunder has a maximum penalty of death, though it was unlikely that Estrada would be given that sentence.
On April 2, 2005, the United Opposition movement named Estrada "Chairman Emeritus".
[edit] Trial
On September 12, 2007, the Sandiganbayan finally gave its decision, finding Estrada not guilty on his perjury case but guilty of plunder "beyond reasonable doubt." He was sentenced to Reclusión perpetua.[4]
On September 26, 2007, Joseph Estrada appealed by filing a 63-page motion for reconsideration of the Sandiganbayan judgment penned by Teresita de Castro (submitting 5 legal grounds).[5][6] Estrada alleged that the court erred "when it convicted him by acquitting his alleged co-conspirators."[7]
On October 5, 2007, the Sandiganbayan's Special Division ruled to have set for October 19, oral argument (instead of a defense reply) on Joseph Estrada’s motion for reconsideration. Estrada asked court permission to attend the hearing, since it ordered the prosecution to file comment before October 11.[8]
[edit] Pardon and release from detention
On October 22, 2007, Acting Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera stated that Joseph Estrada is seeking a “full, free, and unconditional pardon” from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Estrada's lawyer Jose Flaminiano wrote Arroyo: "The time has come to end President Estrada's fight for justice and vindication before the courts. Today [Monday], we filed a withdrawal of his Motion for Reconsideration." Estrada, 70, stressed the "delicate condition" of his mother in asking for pardon.[9]
On October 25, 2007, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo granted executive clemency to Joseph Estrada based on the recommendation by the Department of Justice (DoJ). Acting Executive Secretary and Press Secretary Ignacio R. Bunye quoted the signed Order: "In view hereof in pursuant of the authority conferred upon me by the Constitution, I hereby grant Executive clemency to Joseph Ejercito Estrada, convicted by the Sandiganbayan of plunder and imposed a penalty of reclusion perpetua. He is hereby restored to his civil and political rights." Bunye noted that Estrada committed in his application not to seek public office, and he would be free from his Tanay resthouse on October 26, noon.[10][11][12] On October 26, 2007, after almost 7 years of detention, Joseph Estrada was finally released after the Sandiganbayan promulgated the historical Resolution.[13]
[edit] Perjury case
The Sandiganbayan's special division, on June 27, 2008, ordered Estrada to file comment within 10 days, on the motion of the Ombudsman's Special Prosecutor to re-open the trial of his perjury case regarding 1999 statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN). The court will also resolve Banco de Oro's (formerly Equitable PCI Bank), plea that it cannot determine "without hazard to itself" who to turn over to the P1.1 billion Jose Velarde assets due to claims by Wellex Group / William Gatchalian and a Bureau of Internal Revenue stay order.[14]
[edit] Personal life
Estrada is married to (the former Doctor and first lady-turned-senator) Luisa Pimentel and had three children by her: Jose Ejercito, Jr. (better known as "Jinggoy Estrada"; former Mayor of San Juan turned Senator/married to Precy Vitug), Jackie Ejercito (married to Beaver Lopez), and Jude Ejercito (married to Weng Ocampo). Joseph Estrada met his wife Loi while working as an orderly at the National Center for Mental Health (NMCH) in Mandaluyong City.
He also has a children from four out-of-wedlock relationships, including Joseph Victor "JV" Ejercito (from socialite Guia Gómez) who also made a name for himself in Philippine politics by following his father's footsteps as the current mayor of San Juan City.[15] Pagsanjan, Laguna Mayor Emilio Ramon P. Ejercito III, known in Philippine showbiz as George Estregan, Jr., or E.R. Ejercito, is his nephew.
During the 2000 impeachment proceedings, reports of Estrada's numerous out-of-marriage relationships and offspring surfaced in the press.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Malaya, J. Eduardo; Jonathan E. Malaya (2004). ...So Help Us God: The Presidents of the Philippines and Their Inaugural Addresses. Pasig City: Anvil Publishing. pp. 277-299. ISBN 971-27-1487-X.
- ^ Estrada vs Desierto: 146710-15 : March 2, 2001 : J. Puno : En Banc
- ^ GMA NEWS.TV, Erap's PMP questions EDSA 2 constitutionality
- ^ "Erap guilty of plunder, sentenced to reclusion perpetua", gmanews.tv, September 12, 2007.
- ^ Monstersandcritics.com, Philippines' ex-president Estrada appeals conviction for plunder
- ^ English.people.com, Convicted Philippine ex-president files reconsideration motion
- ^ Inquirer.net, Estrada asks Sandiganbayan to reverse conviction, Cites acquittal of co-accused
- ^ ManilaBulletin, Erap wants to attend Sandigan oral arguments[dead link]
- ^ IHT, Ousted Philippine president withdraws appeal for his plunder conviction, seeks pardon
- ^ news.monstersandcritics.com, Philippine leader pardons ex-president Estrada
- ^ Inquirer.net, Arroyo grants pardon to Estrada
- ^ Gmanews.tv, Estrada granted executive clemency
- ^ Inquirer.net, Sandigan approves Estrada release
- ^ newsinfo.inquirer.net, Estrada told to reply to request to start perjury trial
- ^ GMANews.TV: Personal Information - Joseph Ejercito Estrada
16. http://erap.ph/speakson/erap_bio.htm
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Joseph Estrada |
| Preceded by Salvador H. Laurel |
Vice President of the Philippines 1992–1998 |
Succeeded by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo |
| Preceded by Fidel V. Ramos |
President of the Philippines 1998–2001 |
Succeeded by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo |
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