Joseph “Erap” Estrada served as the 13th President of the Republic of the Philippines for almost three years before he was ousted in 2001, in an event deemed as the second EDSA revolution, after a corruption scandal broke out around October 2000 accusing Estrada of accepting a huge amount of money worth of bribes. His short tenure as president of the country was filled with numerous allegations most notorious of which were the gambling, drinking incidents and the plunder case that resulted to an impeachment trial conducted by the Philippine Senate.
He has always been portrayed as pro-poor and champion of the masses with his famous slogan “Erap para sa mahirap” (Erap for the poor) claiming that he identifies and associate himself more with the masses having lived in the Tondo area in his early years. In reality, Estrada came from an upper middle class family that enjoyed a relatively comfortable life. He studied in distinguished schools before finally quitting to pursue a career in acting. He appeared in about 100 lead film roles where he mostly portrayed a defender of the oppressed and the poor. It was during this time that he acquired his famous nickname “Erap”, a reverse spelling of the word “pare” which means pal, given to him by his fellow actor and good friend Fernando Poe Jr. Estrada proved to be a thespian in acting and he has his multiple Best Actor trophies and a Hall of Fame awards to prove it.
In 1968, Estrada ran for mayor, and won, in the municipality of San Juan even with no prior experience as a politician. Under his administration, San Juan relatively flourished and its people benefitting from the establishments Estrada built. In 1987 he ran for a Senate seat in the presidential election under a party he himself founded – Partido ng Masang Pilipino- and succeeded. Setting his vision for higher office, he ran as a vice-president of the country in the 1992 elections where he won once again. Finally, he embarked on a presidential race in the 1998 elections with a landslide win amidst controversies being thrown and accused of him by his political rivals. As a newly elected president, he was keen on the liberation of the masses from their oppressive state and improving the economic state of the country. He was ousted from his presidential seat in January 2001 with corruption charges right after his impeachment trial was aborted. He was replaced by vice-president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as president and would continue to retain her current post for six more years after winning the 2004 presidential elections. In 2007, Estrada was found guilty of his plunder charge sentenced to 40 years of imprisonment. However, President Arroyo granted him pardon after a month of his conviction restoring his civil and political rights. Currently, Estrada is running for a presidential post in the May 2010 presidential elections.