Born in 1937, on April 19, as José Marcelo Ejército in Manila, Philippines, Joseph Estrada, nicknamed Erap (the verlan of Pare which means buddy in Filipino), is a politician and former actor who served as the 13th President of the Philippines, between 1998 and 2001. Despite his initial popularity, he was the first Asian president to be removed from office.
In his youth, his ambition was to follow in his father’s footsteps as a government engineer. However, he abandoned his studies to become a film actor, adopting the pseudonym Erap Estrada because his parents forbade him to use their surname.
Estrada built his popularity over a 30-year acting career, from 1954 to 1989, which saw him star in over 100 films. He also produced over 50 films.
He began his political career in 1967, before being elected mayor of a municipality in Greater Manila in 1969. In 1987, he was elected senator and in 1992, vice-president of Fidel V. Ramos.
Building on this momentum, he was elected President in 1998 by a wide margin over his opponents. However, he openly declared war on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2000 and captured its headquarters. Nevertheless, he was removed from office in mid-term, in 2001, over a scandalous corruption scandal.
He was removed from office in a popular uprising dubbed the “Second Philippine Revolution”. The uprising was triggered when pro-Estrada senators voted to reject decisive evidence against Estrada. Demonstrations then resounded through the streets of Manila and other major Philippine cities, calling for Estrada’s removal from office. In the end, Estrada had no choice but to resign when his own cabinet members turned against him, as well as when the protests were supported by high-ranking political and religious officials, business leaders…
In 2007, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for embezzlement ($80 million), but his former vice-president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who had acted as interim president after his impeachment, before taking over another term, since she had won the 2004 elections, granted him a presidential pardon, in view of his advanced age (70).
In return, he pledged never to stand for re-election in any political term. However, this pledge was short-lived, as he ran for president in 2010, losing to Aquino. He was nevertheless elected mayor of Manila twice, in 2012 and 2016, but lost the elections for a third consecutive term to Isko Moreno Domagoso, Manila’s current mayor.