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Joseph Estrada (1998-2001) 13th President

Joseph "Erap" Ejercito Estrada is a Filipino politician who served as the 13th President of the Philippines from 1998 to 2001 and as the 9th Vice President of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998.



Former Senator and President Estrada was born on April 19, 1937 in Tondo, Manila to Emilio Ejercito and Maria Marcelo. He studied at the Ateneo de Manila University and at the Mapua Institute of Technology. He holds Doctor of Humanities from the University of Pangasinan. He became a movie actor in his early twenties and established himself as a living legend in local filmdom. He is married to Luisa Pimentel Estrada. His children are Jinggoy, Jacqueline and Jude (with Luisa), Teresitaand Joel Eduardo (with Peachy Osorio), Joseph Victor (with Guia Gomez), and Jerica Ejercito (with Laarni Enriquez).


He first entered politics in 1967 when he was elected Mayor of the Municipality of San Juan and served up to 1986. He was recognized as Outstanding Mayor and Foremost Nationalist by the Inter-Provincial Information Service in 1971 and hailed Most Outstanding Metro Manila Mayor by the Philippines Princetone Poll in 1972.In 1992, he was elected Vice President of the Philippines and concurrently served as Chairman of the Presidential Anti –Crime Commission. On May 1998, he was elected President of the Republic of the Philippines and on February 200
2, he was overthrowned by EDSA II Revolution which was triggered by the impeachment case filed against him.

The Presidency of Joseph Estrada in the Philippines spanned for 31 months from June 30, 1998 to January 20, 2001. Estrada reached the pinnacle of his political career when he was elected President of the Republic in the May 11, 1998 national elections. With almost 11-million Filipinos writing his name on the ballot, his margin of victory was the biggest ever registered in Philippine electoral history. The Estrada administration undertook an aggressive housing program on a national basis, targeting low-cost homes for the poor. Agriculture received greater priority, while the national government likewise took steps to bring down the cost of medicine. Foreign investments grew exponentially, benefiting greatly from the unsullied and esteemed reputation of the best and the brightest chosen to be part of his Cabinet, and even more from his reputation as a strongly nationalistic yet progressive president.

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 on November 13, 2000 which did not succeed. 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.

The Senate impeachment trial, a constitutional process initiated to determine the truth behind the allegations of corruption hurled by the false witness, ended abruptly in mid-January 2001 when prosecutors staged a walk-out after senators voted against the opening of a document which had no bearing whatsoever on the cases filed before the tribunal. With the second highest official of the land and her husband working secretly with this group and courting the military sector's support, things came to a head on January 20, 2001 with the leave of absence filed by Joseph Estrada and his temporary departure from Malacañang. Following the Supreme Court's decision upholding the legality of the Macapagal-Arroyo presidency, he was arrested at his San Juan home in the afternoon of April 25, 2001 on the strength of a warrant of arrest issued by the Sandiganbayan for the crime of plunder filed by his political enemies.


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