Oct 25, 2009
'This is the last performance of my life,' the 72-year-old former movie star told a crowd of about 10,000 fans in his trademark husky voice as he officially launched his election campaign last week.
Elected president by a record margin during the Asian crisis in 1998, but then impeached for massive corruption and toppled in a bloodless military coup in 2001, Estrada is seeking redemption through his unlikely campaign.
To this day he denies having taken bribes from illegal gambling operators, embezzling millions of dollars in tobacco taxes and wasting his mandate through inept rule.
He insists it was his replacement, incumbent President Gloria Arroyo, who drove the Southeast Asian nation further into poverty and chaos through corruption.
But, although Ms Arroyo pardoned him in 2007 after he was sentenced to life in jail for graft, Mr Estrada maintains he has been deeply victimised by the nation's elite. -- AFP
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