MANILA, Philippines — Aside from an autobiography he is preparing, former President Joseph Estrada has also made a memoir in film, detailing his rise and fall from power, his reel life juxtaposing with his real life.

“My Memoirs” is in CD which is available in English and Tagalog. It recounts his meteoric rise from action star to three-time mayor of San Juan, senator, vice president, and eventually president with the highest majority in the history of Philippine politics.

He was not able to enjoy his full term because of his dramatic fall from power.

Erap said that the elite had conspired with the Church, civil society, and big business to topple him from power, unable to stand a movie actor as president.

While People Power I, which ousted Ferdinand Marcos, was hailed all over the world, People Power II was criticized by the international press and legal experts.

“The 1987 Constitution suffered. This happened when the ongoing impeachment trial of President Joseph Estrada was unceremoniously discontinued and the issues on hand were brought to the parliament of the streets. The rule of law was set aside and the rule of force prevailed,” said Supreme Court Justice Cecilia Munoz-Palma, chair of the 1987 Constitutional Convention.

Seth Mydans of the New York Times News Service wrote: “People Power II was met with doubt and criticism, described by foreign commentators as a ‘defeat for due process,’ as ‘mob rule,’ as ‘a de facto coup.’ It was seen as an elitist backlash against a President who had overwhelmingly been elected by the poor. This time it appears that ‘people power’ was used not to restore democracy but, momentarily, to supplant it.”

Said an editorial in The Washington Post: “This time, however, the target of Filipinos’ ‘people power’ was not a dictator, like Ferdinand Marcos, but Joseph Estrada, a constitutional executive who received more votes than any previous presidential candidate and who remained popular among the country’s poor… Though the Supreme Court ruled that Vice President Macapagal Arroyo should be sworn in as president, the legality of the transfer remains questionable.”

Lee Kuan Yew wrote in the Straits Times: “The change of power in the Philippines was no boost for democracy because it was done outside the Constitution.”

From The Economist: “Gloria Macapagal Arroyo took over the presidency in constitutional circumstances that do not stand up well to scrutiny.”

Erap feels that his film memoir would vindicate him in the eyes of his masa followers, a potent force that over the years has not diminished their appreciation of what he had done for them.

Although belonging to a middle class family, Erap had endeared himself with the downtrodden, the aggrieved, and the destitute, who always come in droves whenever he is in town, such as the “Lakbay Pasasalamat” (Thank you tour) that he made shortly after his release from detention.

Following his release, he told his followers that he would continue to help them, while acknowledging the errors he made as a public servant, but assuring them that corruption was not one of them.