Joseph Estrada

Joseph Marcelo Ejercito was born in Tondo on April 19, 1937.He was the son of Emilio Ejercito, a government contractor, and Maria Marcelo, a simple housewife.
Known to many as Erap, he is married to former Senator Dr. Luisa Pimentel by whom he has three children, namely Jinggoy, who is now a senator of the realm, Jacqueline and Jude.

Contrary to the popular notion that he grew up in life of poverty, he lived relatively well-off. After being expelled from Ateneo de Manila University, he enrolled in an engineering course at Mapua Institute of Technology, eventually dropping out to pursue acting.

In his early twenties, he became a movie actor by accident but later proved himself to be an accomplished thespian, starring in a string of well-received films that earned him the title of a living legend in local filmdom. More popularly known as Erap, he is a five-time Best Actor awardee – a feat he repeated by winning the Best Picture award an equal number of times. This earned him a rare place in the FAMAS Hall of Fame in 1981 and 1984, respectively.

He entered politics in 1967, was elected and re-elected mayor of the Municipality (now City) of San Juan which he served with dedication and distinction for more than 16 continuous years. Unfortunately, he was one of hundreds of local officials who were asked to step down in the aftermath of the 1986 EDSA revolution. The following year, he ran and won a seat in the Senate under his own party, Partido ng Masang Pilipino.

In the 1992 presidential election Estrada initially intended to run for President but later decided to be the running mate of Eduardo Cojuangco of the Nationalist People's Coalition. Estrada won the vice-presidency although Cojuangco was defeated by Fidel Ramos of the LAKAS party. Shortly after the inauguration of Ramos, he appointed Estrada to head the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC) even though Estrada was from the political opposition.

Estrada was elected president in 1998. However, his presidency was soon dogged by charges of plunder and corruption. In October 2000, an acknowledged gambling racketeer, Luis Singson, governor of the province of Ilocos Sur, alleged that he had personally given Estrada the sum of 400 million pesos as payoff from illegal gambling profits. Singson's allegation caused an uproar all over the nation, which culminated in Estrada's impeachment by the House of Representatives in November of 2000. He was the first Philippine President be impeached. 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. Without military support, and with mass resignations from his cabinet, Estrada's government quickly fell.

Estrada returned to his old home in San Juan where he constantly maintained that he never resigned and therefore implying that Arroyo's government was illegitimate, despite the fact that the international community recognized Arroyo's succession and that all government offices, the military and the national police acknowledged Arroyo as the new president.

The new government charged him with plunder and had him arrested in April. He was convicted by the Sandiganbayan of plunder and imposed a penalty of reclusion perpetua,but was later granted executive clemency by Pres. Arroyo.