Sixth of a series

JOSEPH "Erap" Estrada has gone through several elective positions that prepared him for the presidency — post-Ferdinand E. Marcos. His partisans described him as one of the most experienced Philippine politicians, having been elected vice president for six years, another six years as senator before that, and mayor of a major city for 17 years. Compare this to Cory, a housewife; FVR, a soldier; GMA, an academic; PNoy, an entitled son; and the Deegong, a local politician.

He was an idolized local movie star playing lead roles in a hundred movies depicting tough characters, oftentimes a gangster, but always had the interest of the common tao and the marginalized. His persona hews closely to a screenplay of one who comes from the underclass and champions their cause, mostly against oppression by the rich and the elite who made fun of him as a buffoon, driving the masses instead to his corner. And always in the movies, against all odds, his character transcends the harsh life of poverty, akin to a Horatio Alger "rags-to-riches" trajectory. The Filipino moviegoers lapped up this storyline, unable to distinguish Erap's screen persona from reality as a politician.

Erap's appetites were grand and undisciplined, from his womanizing to his peculiar taste for the libertine lifestyle, quaffing P5,000-P20,000 a pop for his favorite Petrus red wine, a nightly drinking binge with his "barkada" at the Palace as described by his short-lived chief of staff, Aprodicio Laquian to building a "Boracay Mansion" for one mistress with white sand around the pool. He was a dilettante uninterested in the ship of state but captive to populist tendencies.

He was a charismatic, talented actor who endeared himself to his audience. He understood the use of symbols, his trademark white wristband, gestures and mannerisms of a "kanto boy" (vagabond), mumbling the English language, the elite's lingua franca. All these faux performances appealed to the masses — the poor and disenfranchised, propelling him to the heights of elective political office. This script was blurred between his screen roles and his real life. His presidency, he said, was the "greatest role of his life." And indeed, it was. In the 31 months as president, reality caught up with him. He was ousted from the presidency in a popular uprising, EDSA People Power 2, during an aborted impeachment trial for corruption. He was later tried for the crime of plunder for the embezzlement of $80 million (P4 billion), found guilty and sentenced to reclusion perpetua (life imprisonment). He spent almost seven years in prison but was granted a pardon by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, his former vice president, in October 2007— a detention longer than his stint as the country's president. It may be noted that GMA herself spent time in detention for similar criminal charges — although she was later acquitted ("Profiles in corruption: GMA, Hello Garci, NBN-ZTE, atbp.," The Manila Times, Feb 7, 2024).

Jueteng and tobacco excise tax

Erap was corrupt, accused of illegal gambling payoffs, kickbacks and jueteng scandals. His plunder case consisted of "...his acceptance of P545 million proceeds from (jueteng), an illegal gambling; misappropriation of P130 million in excise taxes from tobacco; receiving a P189.7-million commission from the sale of the shares of Belle Corp., a real estate firm; and owning some P3.2 billion in a bank account under the name Jose Velarde" (Ombudsman charges at Sandiganbayan, April 4, 2001).

The Ilocos Sur governor, Luis 'Chavit' Singson, Erap's close friend who later turned on him, allegedly personally handed over P400 million of jueteng money payoffs and P180 million from the government price subsidy for the tobacco farmers' marketing cooperative. Erap's gambling buddy, Charlie "Atong" Ang, was also found to have funneled amounts to the president. Curiously, it was established in the trial that the bank account where these funds were lodged was the president's — attaching his signature, signing himself in with impunity and stupidly so as "Jose Velarde."

In some ways, Estrada has paid for his transgressions and will go down in history as a corrupt president, ousted from the presidency through a defective impeachment process. Were it not for the pardon of President GMA, Erap would have rotted in jail.

At this point, BBM should learn his lessons well, not only from the Erap presidency but from the preceding regimes: Cory, FVR, GMA, PNoy and Duterte's (parts 1-5, "Profiles in corruption," TMT, Jan. 17- Feb. 14, 2024). It is understandable that a priority of the son is to exonerate the presidency and image of his father, Ferdinand Sr. What better way than to clear a pathway for his own presidency that will be an antithesis to those of his predecessors? What this column has been attempting to establish by highlighting the glaring perversions of each president is to portray that these are part of an institutionalized corruption tolerated from the top and has migrated to the body politic.

The venerable Jaime Cardinal Sin, a nemesis of the old Makoy, said it succinctly in 1986: "Ali Baba has fled the Philippines, but the 40 thieves have been left behind!" And subsequent presidencies may have embraced many of them, but more deadly, their mindset of corruption and perversion of governance pervaded subsequent regimes, and a culture of corruption continues and has become a way of life not only at the level of bureaucracy but even among the populace. BBM should understand that to succeed, this should not be tolerated. This is the single most important factor that could sink his own.

Lessons to be learned

Unlike the other presidents in this series, BBM has so much more at stake as he must also carry the burden of his father's reputation and the exigencies of his regime. I reiterate what I wrote in my column in the first part of this series (TMT, Jan. 31, 2024):

"Our intent is for the current president, Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., to revive the investigations of these corruption cases. Having gone full circle from his father's martial law regime to his more open and democratic administration, my thesis is if he could resolve these scandals and bring the perpetrators to justice for the remaining years of his presidency — even for this alone — he could still be a good president, nay, a great one! And perhaps in the process, he could rehabilitate his father's image — or at least mitigate the nadir of governance in the annals of Philippine history."

Admittedly, it is a nearly impossible task and a long road to rehabilitating a father's legacy while at the same time shaping his own. I propose two simple lessons the young Marcos could learn from this series of columns on presidential corruption as his point of departure for the rest of his term.

First, get the unelected members of your family out of the hierarchy of governance and the decision-making process, and use your powers as a strong president to discipline the elected ones. The second is to apply your predecessor the Deegong's dictum, which tragically he failed to follow through: cut off the heads of any of your people tainted by even "a whiff of corruption."

The rest is up to you. Good hunting!