EARLY POLITICAL CAREER
Mayor of San Juan
Estrada entered politics in 1967 when he ran for mayor of San Juan, then a municipality of Metro Manila, and succeeded in only 1969 after winning an electoral protest against Braulio Sto. Domingo. His administration was marked by unequaled accomplishments in infrastructure development. These included the establishment of the first Municipal High School, the Agora complex, a modern slaughterhouse, a sprawling government center with a post office, a mini-park and the concreting of 98 percent of the town's roads and alleys.
As mayor, he paid particular attention to the elementary education of children by improving and renovating school buildings and constructing additional school structures, health centers, barangay halls and playgrounds in all the barangays and providing artesian wells to areas with low water supply. He relocated some 1,800 squatter families out of San Juan to Taytay, Rizal, at no cost. He was also the first mayor to computerize assessment of the Real Estate Tax in the Municipal Assessor’s Office.[11] When Corazon Aquino assumed the presidency in 1986, all elected officials of the local government were forcibly removed and replaced by appointed officers-in-charge, including Estrada
Senator of the Philippines
The following year, he won a seat in the Senate under the Grand Alliance for Democracy (GAD) placing 16th in the elections (out of 24 winners). In 1987, he set his sights on a Senate run and handily garnered a seat. He was appointed Chairman of the Committee on Public Works. He was Vice-Chairman of the Committees on Health, Natural Resources and Ecology and Urban Planning.
In the Senate, Estrada was credited with the passage of, among other major pieces of legislation, the bills on irrigation project and the protection and propagation of carabaos, the beast of burden in the rural areas.
As a senator, he was one of the so-called “Magnificent 12” who voted to terminate the RP-US Military Bases Agreement leading to the withdrawal of American servicemen from the Clark Air Base in Pampanga and the Subic Naval Base in Zambales.
In 1989, the Free Press cited him as one of the Three Outstanding Senators of the Year. He was conferred the degree of Doctor of Humanities, Honoris Causa by the Bicol University in April 1997, and the University of Pangasinan in 1990.
Estrada entered politics in 1967 when he ran for mayor of San Juan, then a municipality of Metro Manila, and succeeded in only 1969 after winning an electoral protest against Braulio Sto. Domingo. His administration was marked by unequaled accomplishments in infrastructure development. These included the establishment of the first Municipal High School, the Agora complex, a modern slaughterhouse, a sprawling government center with a post office, a mini-park and the concreting of 98 percent of the town's roads and alleys.
As mayor, he paid particular attention to the elementary education of children by improving and renovating school buildings and constructing additional school structures, health centers, barangay halls and playgrounds in all the barangays and providing artesian wells to areas with low water supply. He relocated some 1,800 squatter families out of San Juan to Taytay, Rizal, at no cost. He was also the first mayor to computerize assessment of the Real Estate Tax in the Municipal Assessor’s Office.[11] When Corazon Aquino assumed the presidency in 1986, all elected officials of the local government were forcibly removed and replaced by appointed officers-in-charge, including Estrada
Senator of the Philippines
The following year, he won a seat in the Senate under the Grand Alliance for Democracy (GAD) placing 16th in the elections (out of 24 winners). In 1987, he set his sights on a Senate run and handily garnered a seat. He was appointed Chairman of the Committee on Public Works. He was Vice-Chairman of the Committees on Health, Natural Resources and Ecology and Urban Planning.
In the Senate, Estrada was credited with the passage of, among other major pieces of legislation, the bills on irrigation project and the protection and propagation of carabaos, the beast of burden in the rural areas.
As a senator, he was one of the so-called “Magnificent 12” who voted to terminate the RP-US Military Bases Agreement leading to the withdrawal of American servicemen from the Clark Air Base in Pampanga and the Subic Naval Base in Zambales.
In 1989, the Free Press cited him as one of the Three Outstanding Senators of the Year. He was conferred the degree of Doctor of Humanities, Honoris Causa by the Bicol University in April 1997, and the University of Pangasinan in 1990.