Jinggoy Estrada

Jinggoy Estrada is a senator in the 19th Congress, serving his third term since 2004.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from University of the Philippines and was conferred an honorary doctorate degree in humanities by Laguna State Polytechnic University.

Estrada, an actor, is the son of 13th Philippine president Joseph Ejercito Estrada and former senator Dr. Loi Ejercito. His daughter Janella served as San Juan City councilor and vice mayor, and currently executive director of the National Authority for Child Care. He is the half brother of Senator JV Ejercito.

He started in politics as vice mayor of San Juan, which had been an Ejercito-Estrada stronghold since the ‘70s, when his father first won as mayor. He served as vice mayor from 1988 to 1992, and then mayor from 1992 to 2001.

Estrada was first elected senator in 2004 and was reelected for a second consecutive term in 2010. He ran for a Senate seat but lost in the 2019 elections; he would try again and win a third term in 2022. He has held the Senate president pro tempore position several times: in 2007, 2010, and again in 2024.

In 2014, Estrada, along with fellow senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Bong Revilla were charged with plunder for allegedly pocketing millions in kickbacks from their Priority Development Assistance Fund or PDAF, in what would be known as the PDAF scam or pork barrel scam. The senator was detained for three years and granted temporary freedom in 2017. In 2024, or 10 years after his indictment, Estrada was acquitted of plunder but convicted of bribery in the pork barrel scam. He remains free as he appeals the convictions, but is not completely off the hook on the graft allegations over the same controversy.

Prior to the pork barrel scam, Estrada had also been detained in 2001 after he was named co-accused in a plunder case against his father. He was released in 2003 and acquitted in 2007.

Estrada was the principal author of Batas Kasambahay and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Act. Aside from being Senate president pro tempore, he also currently chairs the committee on national defense and security, peace, unification and reconciliation.