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The dice player
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THE last six months have been rough for Joseph Estrada. Since October, the former president of the Philippines has been impeached by his nation's Congress, chased out of office in a bloodless coup, and, finally, arrested on Monday for the potentially capital crime of corruption.
Filipino prosecutors charged the flamboyant politician with a number of offenses, particularly the theft of four billion pesos (US$80m) during 30 tumultuous months in office.
Estrada, who turns 64 this week, was also accused of various counts of cronyism, illegal business dealings, and gambling.
The gambling charge in particular illuminates Estrada's common-man background and colourful persona. He allegedly received a huge amount of payoffs from criminal gambling syndicates running jueteng, a popular dice game.
State prosecutors said on Tuesday they were dropping five criminal charges filed against Estrada in the hope of winning a swift verdict against him for plunder, a crime punishable by death.
Despite the legal setback, Estrada, a former actor, seems defiant — just like in his popular movies, in which he was famed for staging dramatic comebacks.
One month after his removal from office, he said he could not even imagine being arrested. “How could I... when I can't even imagine myself going to jail?" he said.
Then two weeks ago, he challenged the authorities: “Go ahead, arrest me. My head remains unbowed."
The strong words, however, could not hide the humiliation.
He has not only lost weight — 11.4kg at last count — but also the support he wielded when he stormed into power by an election landslide in 1998.
On becoming president, Estrada had vowed to show up critics who said the college drop-out, gambler, drinker and womanizer was not fit to be leader of the predominantly Roman Catholic nation of 76 million people.
“This will be my last and greatest performance," he said of his presidency.
But when he was ousted in January, his six-year term in office was less than half finished and his critics were gloating.
The eighth of 10 children of a Manila engineer, Joseph was the black sheep of the upper-middle-class Ejercito family, dropping out of engineering school and hanging out with unsavoury types.
He took up acting, to the horror of his conservative parents who forbade him from using the family name. So he adapted the name Joseph Estrada and later became popularly known by his nickname, “Erap".
He gained mass popularity as a star in dozens of action movies, often playing a Robin Hood figure keen to help the poor. He won a clutch of acting awards and also acquired several mistresses — most of them film co-stars.
He specialized in playing street toughs, squatters, labour leaders, gangsters, rebels, farmers — always lower-class figures who spoke bad English but were eloquent with their fists and usually overcame their upper-class tormentors.
These roles endeared him to the Filipino masses who elected him mayor, vice-president and then president.
Usually speaking in the Tagalog language of the masses, he has built support at each turn of his political career by railing against the established business and political elites.
His personal life also bears the imprint of a friendly rogue. Although he admits to having been a womanizer in the past — he has acknowledged to having had three mistresses — a heavy drinker and avid gambler, such traits often boosted his man-of-the-people image with the masses.
Tolerance of Estrada's lifestyle finally cracked, however. Luis Singson, the provincial governor who made the most recent allegations, recalled all-night gambling sessions with the president with winnings of up to US$1m a session. In a strongly Catholic country where about a third of the population lives on less than US$1 a day, these stories have proved shocking.
Estrada's presidential style was more one of small-town mayor than strategic thinker. He relied on personal hunches and populist gestures, qualities that proved useless last year in the face of an international hostage crisis and a Muslim rebel insurgency.
Even so, Estrada retains some strengths: a genuine drive to help the poor, an action-oriented style, a good dose of charisma and an actor's communication skills. He has also traditionally been loyal to his friends. Yet many believe that this has also worked against him.
In the past he was also criticized for leaving some of his most important policy decisions for late-night sessions dominated by friends and alcohol.
“When you've spent lots of time in beer joints and gambling halls, you end up with friends who are crooks," Joel Rocamora, director of the Institute for Popular Democracy, a Manila think-tank, said last year.
His friends may experience a true test next month when Estrada, free on 40,000-peso (US$800) bail, is arraigned on May 17.(SD-Agencies)
Chronology of Estrada corruption scandal
Oct 9, 2000: Estrada's former friend, provincial governor Luis Singson accuses the president of pocketing more than US$12 million in bribes from illegal gambling syndicates and kickbacks from tobacco excise taxes. Estrada denies the charges.
Oct 18: Opposition legislators file an impeachment motion against Estrada in the House of Representatives over the gambling payoffs scandal.
Nov 13: Estrada is impeached by the House of Representatives for alleged corruption, betrayal of public trust and violations of the constitution. The case is elevated to the Senate for trial, which could result in his removal from office.
Dec 7: Senate begins corruption trial.
Dec 22: A senior bank officer testifies she was one foot away when Estrada repeatedly signed a false name on a US$10 million trust account allegedly built up through criminal activities.
Jan 17: Prosecutors in the trial quit en masse. Hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets to protest the Senate decision and call for Estrada to quit.
Jan 19, 2001: Estrada, trying desperately to buy time, authorizes his bank records to be opened and urges a snap presidential election in May, but fails to stop a wave of defections as cabinet members resign and the military withdraw their support.
Jan 20: Estrada refuses to resign, the Supreme Court declares the presidency vacant, and vice-president Gloria Arroyo is installed as the new president. Two and a half hours later, Estrada and his family leave the presidential palace.
April 4: A state ombudsman indicts Estrada for plunder and seven other related charges of graft.
April 10: The Supreme Court throws out last-ditch appeals by Estrada for presidential immunity, clearing the way for his prosecution and arrest.
April 16: The special anti-graft court hands down an arrest warrant for Estrada on the lesser charge of perjury and diversion of public funds.(SD-Agencies)
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